Slowly Rotting Hearts
by Krivoklatsko
Summary: Yet another should-be-dead-enemy has come to haunt Sora. But what Master Xehanort has to tell him may be creepier than the man himself. And can he really be a hero when he has his own demons to worry about? Rated for good reasons.
1. Chapter 1

**I took a** **Break from Schemes of Evil to get my head clear for new ideas. Well, the first thing that came to mind was more KH. Surprise, surprise.**

**For those of you who don't know, Keepa, Dotto, Miyu, Jassu, Letty, and Botta are all Blitzballers from Final Fantasy X.**

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* * *

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"**As long as there are hearts, there will be darkness." –Master Yen Sid, as transcribed by Jiminy Cricket.**

Sora shot up in bed, eyes wide, swinging his keyblade like the world was made of locks. But his phantoms refused to materialize and accept his blows. After all, they were stuck in his dreams. Or at least his wishes held them there for as long as he remained vigilant. He had seen the same things as before: himself, in a dark corner of a bright room.

All of his friends beckoned him toward the light, but now he was the one in darkness, too scared to come to them, holding his darkness like a shell. And the darkness held him in turn. Then he left the darkness for nothingness. And there he hid, in another corner -one without dimensions- where again his friends tried to beckon him to the light. And again he hid. And again he was accepted in turn. But the whole while that he saw this, he tried to refuse. Tried to force the limbs he saw to move away from the danger, out of the poison. And then, just before he tried to heave with his greatest effort, his body (which he had been watching as if from another's eyes) turned to him and spoke with the voice of an old enemy. "In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came."

But he wasn't there anymore, in those places where time has no meaning. The World Terminus, or the World That Never Was. He was here now, alone in his own room, with only his own shadow to scare him. And scare him it would. He stayed in "soft light" as he had heard it called before. He desperately sought out places where shadows weren't cast, even to the curious bemusement to those around him. But a shadow like his, as he would discover soon, was not meant to stay with its owner.

Sora turned his attention toward the window at his side. It was open already, letting in a breeze that seemed to beckon him outside for a midnight adventure. He let out a breath and settled himself back onto his bed, instantly feeling the dampness of his sheets. To be more accurate, they were soaked. He sat up again and felt around them. Nothing was dry on his bed anymore. Not even the down side of the pillow. His night terror had given him as much of a workout, if not better, than he could expect from a proper Blitzball game.

"Oh."

Sora turned to his alarm clock, a miniature, porcelain moogle with an over inflated belly.

"Oh, man!"

Three in the morning is never a good time to get up, unless something bad is planning on happening at three-fifteen. Sora sighed and looked out his window again towards the street that led towards town. He watched a bush sway in the wind for a time that he didn't bother to count, and intensified his stare as something piqued his senses. He couldn't identify it, but something was definitely bothering him. He turned around and scanned the interior of his room. He was alone, he was sure of that. He turned back towards the window and would have smashed it in an instant with his keyblade had he not fallen backwards off his bead just before he swung. Right beside the bush he had been watching was a shadow that had been perfectly camouflaged. He hadn't seen it until he caught a glimpse of its outline in the corner of his eye. It had been watching him the entire time. Sora landed hard on his head, with his feet still on his bed, tangled in the sheets. He scrambled up to the window again and faced what he had seen with slightly renewed vigor. The shadow was still there, glaring at him with the telltale yellow eyes of a heartless. It began laughing then, a guttural sound that seemed to ebb the shadows around it further outward with each spasm.

"The champion of darkness, destroyer of all worlds, nearly dying of shock at the sight of an old man."

It shook its head.

"This won't do at all."

It took a step forward, out of the shadows around it that were cast by the nearby paopu trees, and Sora rubbed his eyes with astonishment. What had, moments before, been only a shadow, was now an elderly man (not a very menacing one, either) that stood idly on the street with his hands folded behind his back. Sora breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes must have been playing tricks on him. Of course they were, it was three in the morning!

Sora looked again at his alarm clock to double check, and was then struck with a peculiar thought. What would anyone be doing outside his window at three in the morning muttering about the "destroyer of all worlds?"

Sora turned back to the old man in the road and found him gone. He was simply not there anymore. Sora closed his window cautiously, and did not sleep.

* * *

"**Weapons have very few functions. The Ultimate Weapon, only one." –unknown, as transcribed by Jiminy Cricket.**

Sora stepped out of the front door, something he was unaccustomed to what with his window being an easy replacement for stairs. The door shut behind him under its own weight. Sora took a breath of the morning air, which hadn't been graced by the sun yet, and hiked his backpack higher onto his shoulders. Today was the day of the game. And his team, the Destiny Island Destroyers, desperately needed him to keep the bench warm while Tidus and Wakka tore up the field. He started up the street while a fleeting thought about whether or not there were any local skate parks passed through his mind. He walked straight past the bush that had most definitely not, as he told himself, been graced by the presence of a heartless last night.

He made it into town in a matter of minutes and was soon joined by Tidus and Wakka, who only abated their conversation long enough to say high to him before they continued arguing about wether they should go for victory or do their best. Sora busied himself by judging the weight in his backpack. He grew bored of it quickly and interjected, "Hey. Does it really matter? I mean, we're not even playing in a Blitz Sphere. It's on a field, with soccer nets. I mean… who really cares?"

Wakka threw his hands in the air. "You see? It's like I been sayin' this whole time!"

Tidus shook his head. "No way, man. It always matters! Haven't you heard the coach like a thousand times already? It pays to be a winner! Besides," He nudged Wakka. "That Goth chick you like is gonna' be there watching you the whole time. What's her name?"

Wakka grew defensive. Her name's Lulu, and she just likes to dress in black, okay? It doesn't mean she's Goth, or Emo, or anything like that."

"Whatever, man!"

Tidus capitulated the point easily and turned to Sora, whom he had noticed fidgeting with his pack.

"What about Kairi? Is she gonna' be there?"

Sora perked up at the mention of her name, then blushed slightly. He hadn't actually told her about the game.

"Uh…"

Wakka leaned toward Tidus. "He didn't tell her."

"What?! Why not?"

"Of course I did! I just… uh… didn't tell her _when_ it was."

Tidus shook his head. "That's sad man. You're never gonna score like that."

Now Sora was on the defensive. "Well maybe I actually like her as a person, okay?"

Tidus grinned. "Doesn't mean you can't have some fun."

Sora tried to get some sympathy from Wakka. "You can't possibly agree with him here."

Wakka grinned. "Well… he does have a point there. I mean, we're guys, and they're girls. Gotta' figure we got different parts for somethin'."

Sora was about to retaliate when Riku arrived and joined their procession. He was dressed, just like them, in a white polo shirt, tan khaki pants, and a plaid tie.

"Riku! You've gotta' back me up here."

"Slow down, Sora. Just because you like her doesn't mean…"

Sora gaped at him.

Riku looked taken aback. "What?"

"You can't be serious!"

Riku shrugged. "It's not like it's okay to go at it like rabbits. I mean, we _are_ teenagers after all. But what's wrong with a little second base? Miyu and I kissed and I haven't turned into a heartless, so I don't see the problem."

Sora frowned. "That's not funny."

"Sorry."

"I'm not."

Everyone turned to see Miyu, who had been walking with them for most of the conversation.

Wakka nearly jumped out of his skin. "Where'd you come from? You're like a ghost, ya?"

She smiled. "It's one of my many amazing abilities."

Riku pulled a power bar from his pocket and tossed it above everyone's heads, intentionally aiming it just out of Miyu's reach.

She sped up ever so slightly and put out her arm just perfectly enough to catch it without even looking up. She was the goalie for a good reason. She opened the top of it and asked, "What's our goal today?"

Everyone answered simultaneously.

"To do our best!"

"Victory!"

"Not give an inch!"

"Score like crazy!"

She glared at the rest of them. "You boys are so silly! Just don't let 'em score."

The guys all cocked their heads. "Wha-?"

"If they don't get any points they can't win. So, don't let 'em score."

She shrugged like she had just said something obvious and took a bite out of the power bar. "Mmm. This is good."

* * *

"Blitzoff!"

Sora and Keepa watched glumly from the bench as Tidus, Wakka, and Riku sprinted like mad toward the center of the field. Tidus ran straight past the ball to get into position almost right on top of the goal, while Wakka stopped several yards short. Riku rammed into the opposition's Center Fielder, stopping him from claiming the ball first. It bounced on the ground and was scooped up by the Left Forward of the other team, the Traverse Town Terminators. He passed to the Right Forward, who bounced off his knee toward the goal. Miyu caught it easily.

"I coulda' caught that one."

Sora sighed and looked at Keepa, who was sitting next to him. "She's a better goalie and you know it."

"Man, if coach would just give me a chance-"

"He did. You accidentally knocked the ball into your own goal, remember? They're better at Blitzball than we are. So what? We can find other things to do."

"It was slippery, though."

Sora felt something snap within himself. He couldn't take the whining anymore.

"It's a WATER SPORT!"

Sora caught himself suddenly. "Sorry. I… had other stuff on my mind. I didn't mean to yell."

Keepa was silent, and looking rather sullen. He turned away from Sora and scooted down the bench, leaving Sora feeling rather lonely.

"It's easy for you to say. We can't all be heroes."

That hit Sora hard. He'd just alienated a friend. He wanted to say something nice to make up for it, but something else was nagging at him from inside. Something unnatural was trying to claw its way up his throat and across his tongue. Like the after taste of whatever had possessed him to yell in the first place.

"You're right."

Keepa turned back towards Sora.

"What?"

"Not everyone can be a hero."

He turned away from Keepa just in time to see Tidus throw the ball directly at the Traverse Town goalie. It caught him off guard, striking him directly across the face and bouncing straight back to Tidus, who kneed it into the air. Everyone's gaze went up with it, then back down as Tidus jumped up after it. He spun in midair for a moment, then tilted himself until he was horizontal, and stuck out his leg at just the right moment to slam the ball home. The crowd went wild right as the referee called halftime.

"Sora."

He glanced up at the coach, whose face was buried in a clipboard. "I'm gonna switch you in for Tidus in the second half."

Keepa perked up. "Can I-"

"Fix your attendance and I'll think about it next time."

The rest of the team walked in from off the field. Everyone was, of course, clapping Tidus of the back.

"Tidus."

All eyes went to the coach.

"You've done enough today. We're gonna see how well the Heroes of Heart can double team the Terminators."

Tidus nodded and smiled. They all dispersed to their water bottles, while Sora sat motionless on the bench.

"This seems a good venue to start your trials."

Sora knew that voice. He swiveled on the bench and froze. The same old man from the night before was there behind him, only inches away.

"Xeha-?"

The old man held up a hand to stop him.

"Master… Xehanort. I would like to differentiate myself from my son, if you please."

"Riku!"

Sora jumped to his feet and summoned his keyblade; not nearly ready enough to believe anything the man was saying. This was Xehanort, without a doubt. He was significantly older, that was certain. But there was an uncanny resemblance that couldn't be passed off to anything but genetics.

"Riku!"

Sora looked about himself. Everyone was frozen in time, a situation that was quickly becoming expected. The old man sighed.

"I mean you no harm." He held his hands aloft to prove the point, but the familiar timbre in his voice cancelled out his charisma entirely.

"Oh yeah? Prove it!"

Master Xehanort frowned. "The King sent me. He did mention me in his little letter, didn't he?"

Sora loosened his grip on the keyblade for a moment. He hasn't read the letter in a while, but he distinctly remembered one part of it now.

_You never know what might come next; so always keep up on your conditioning. I don't know how you can practice with the keyblade just yet, but I'll send something your way when I figure it out._

"W-well… why would he send you?" The certainty was gone from Sora's voice.

"And why did you call me the destroyer of all worlds?"

Master Xehanort smirked. "That's what you are. But don't worry. Everything can be used for good. I can show you."

Sora steeled himself. "In my experience, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"I agree."

That caught Sora off guard. He changed his defensive stance.

"Young Xehanort was raised by Ansem, The Apparently Not So Wise: the man who blew himself up trying to digitize Kingdom Hearts."

Sora relaxed a bit, then tensed again. He wasn't about to be tricked by words.

"I still don't think I can trust you."

"I can see that."

They stared each other down for a beat, Sora resolute and Master Xehanort passive.

"So… are we gonna' fight?"

"Kingdom, no! I wouldn't dream of it! But if you don't trust me there's not much I can do, is there?"

Sora shifted his weight again. Master Xehanort seemed lost in thought for a moment, then said, "I suppose I'll just have to leave you with a warning then."

Sora tensed his hind leg, ready to spring.

"One of your friends is a killer." He tapped a finger to his own chest. "Too much darkness built up in their heart. Whoever it is has the means and the motive. All they need now is the opportunity."

Sora was worried now; unsure as to wether he was being threatened, distracted, or, even stranger still, honestly given a heads up. "Why are you telling me this? What can I do about it?"

Master Xehanort leveled his gaze. "Cut out the rot."

He disappeared then, releasing his hold on time as did. Ambient noise came with it, bringing a sense of normalcy back to Sora. He turned in a full circle to look about, and heard, as if it was carried on the wind, "before it spreads."

* * *

**Don't Trust him, Sora! He's def a bad guy!**

**Along those lines: shouldn't he be dead/incapacitated/taken care of byTAV?**

**Only time (or chapter 2) will tell.**


	2. Chapter 2

"**Why is Blitzball better than sex? Because you can do it with minors." – Anonymous, as transcribed by Jiminy Cricket.**

"Sora!"

Sora swiveled again, this time to face his coach.

"Yeah?"

He nodded toward the field impatiently. The coach swiveled around some more and glared at everyone.

"Where's Miyu?"

Sora ran out to his position as left forward and dropped into a crouch. After a while of some commotion, Keepa ran out onto the field and into the net. He clapped his hands together and grinned wide. So Miyu was suddenly missing. Sora scanned the bleachers, which were surprisingly full. He wasn't surprised by his inability to find Miyu, but… where would she have gone? And could it really be that much of a coincidence that he had just been warned about a murderer?

Sora shook his head. Miyu was tougher than most of the guys he knew. She couldn't possibly be in any trouble that she wouldn't be able to get out of on her own. But if she was in trouble, could he really just not help a friend?

The referee raised a flag.

"Ready!"

Sora blinked and focused. The Traverse Town Right Forward was staring at him with a smirk. He pointed at Sora, and then made a thumbs-up, which he abruptly inverted. Something strange happened there. Sora felt like hitting him. Not competitively, or out of a desire to get the ball, but to teach that punk a lesson.

Sora glanced at the ref. Pause.

"Blitzoff!"

Riku and Wakka took off like rockets while Sora slipped and landed on his face. He got his legs under himself again as he heard the enemy Forward laugh. That did it for him. Sora sprung forward just in time to stop him from getting past. They collided and Sora stuck his elbow into the other player's throat. The enemy forward gagged, and then made a noise reminiscent of a drum as Sora kneed him in the stomach. He finished the kid off with a roundhouse to his jaw and looked for the enemy Center. He was blinded by the ball, which struck him in the face. It bounced back to the Center, who ran up Sora's front side, jumped off of him, and tossed to his Right Defender. Wakka clobbered him as he caught it and the ball went loose. Riku swooped it up and elbowed the Left Defender in the face as he tried to get it back. Sora got back on his feet and ran for the goal as Riku bounced the ball off of the now stunned Left Defender and then kneed it into the air to set it up for a drop kick. He got it in the sweet spot and it flew toward the goalie, who deflected it without catching. It arced toward Sora, who kneed it up and pounded it back to Riku with his fist. Riku elbowed it at the goalie again, and again it was deflected. Sora jumped for it and pounded it back to the Goalie, and yet again, like some kind of ridiculous tug of war, it was deflected. Riku caught it and pounded it to Sora, who bounced it back to Riku. They kept it pounding between themselves for several volleys, building up speed, before Riku finally turned it on the Goalie. It caught him in the knee and returned to Sora who struck it at his leg. It passed to Riku, face, Sora, chin, Riku, hip, Sora, shoulder, Riku, gut, Sora, arm, and finally Riku tossed it into the goal unhindered. The Goalie fell over, defeated, as the buzzer chimed. Riku put his arms over his head to open his lungs while Sora walked to the Left Forward, who he had left lying on the field where they collided. He crouched on his toes and leaned in toward the other player's face. "Two-Zero."

As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt differently about them. It was not the nice thing to do, he knew, but it certainly felt good. Part of him was screaming that he apologize, while the other was simply complacent.

Riku patted him on the shoulder, drawing his attention back to the present.

"Guess we won't need Miyu after all. You gonna' help him up?"

Sora stood to his feet, scratching his head nervously as he did. He didn't want to think about the guy he'd just pummeled out of uncharacteristic rage.

"Where is she anyway?"

Riku shrugged. "No idea."

They returned to their starting marks. Again, Traverse Town had possession.

The ref raised his flag and the Forward that Sora had pummeled rose to his feet groggily. He was wearing a grin still, and Sora felt like wiping it off his face onto the field. He had forgotten about everything but blitzing again.

"Blitzoff!"

Sora rushed toward his opposite and tried for a shoulder impact. He knew from the last collision that he was the heavier one. The other Forward stepped slightly to his side and raised a knee to Sora's groin. It made contact perfectly with the cup, and went straight through to Sora's now enraged soul. That was an obvious slight, and the ref had to be blind not to call foul.

_Well if he missed that..._

Sora grabbed the Punk's ear and dragged his head down into his own knee. He did it again, and again, and then threw him to the ground and kicked him in the stomach. He laughed- _bastard!_ – And struck out at Sora's knee with his foot: again, an uncalled foul and an obvious slight. If Sora was enraged before, he lost all semblance of control now. He dropped onto the idiot's chest and slugged him in the face, brushing aside his flimsy attempts at blocking with his arms. Sora hit him again. It felt good. He struck again, and again, and again, and again until his need for violence consumed him entirely. Instinctively, he uncurled his fist and slashed with his fingers. Gashes opened up on the face he had only now noticed was no longer laughing. He blinked in surprise, and then looked at his hand. It was just as normal as always.

"Sora!"

Sora blinked again and stood off of his opponent as quickly as he knew how. Everyone from both teams was standing around him. He looked around at them all, then back at the Forward on the ground, who looked as scared as Sora felt.

"Sora?"

Sora swiveled to see Riku looking at him oddly. "You alright?"

"I…" Sora looked at his hand, then back to the gashes in his opponents face.

"Let me help you u-"

The Forward scurried back as Sora approached him and one of his teammates stepped in between them. Sora felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You should just take a break, ya?"

Wakka patted him before letting his shoulder go.

"Sorry," Sora blurted. The Forward felt his gashes and mumbled, "yeah."

It was more out of instinct and shock than any genuine acceptance of the apology. Sora walked back to the team bench and flopped into an open spot next to Jassu. Jassu stared at him and was about to say something when the coach cut him off.

"What are you waiting for, ice cream? Get on the field!" Jassu popped tall and ran out to fill Sora's position, leaving him on the bench looking at the ground.

"PTSD much?"

Sora looked up at his coach. "What?"

"Nothing. Nice job with the ear thing."

Sora mumbled thanks and let his head slump into his hands.

_What did I just do?_

He lifted his head and stared at his hand again. It wasn't bloody, and it definitely wasn't clawed. So what just happened?

"Blit-!"

"I would call that a failure."

Sora turned slowly to see Master Xehanort standing next to his bench.

* * *

"**To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking your enemy's resistance without fighting." –Sun Tzu, as transcribed by Jimminy Cricket.**

* * *

"You can't call yourself a hero if you can't even control your primal emotions during a sports game."

Master Xehanort shook his head. "Not to mention that you prioritized the game over your friend in the first place."

Sora shot to his feet. "You know where Miyu is!"

Master Xehanort nodded. "Yes. But you certainly don't care enough for me to tell you."

"Tell me!"

Master Xehanort rounded on Sora with a glare that completely destroyed his resolve. "Make you my student for nothing? I cannot simply throw knowledge at you and think that you can survive against the forces of darkness!"

"Why would I want to be your student? You're the bad guy anyway!"

Sora dropped into a crouch and summoned the keyblade.

"Look at your stance! I've seen boxes that would be harder to break! The King is a fool to trust you with anything. And kingdom Hearts doubly so to make you its champion."

"Take that back!"

Sora made to lunge and found himself immobilized. Master Xehanort had merely scooted his foot forward and placed it lightly against Sora's shin, but the effect was debilitating. Sora tried to push his way forward with brute force and found that his will was no match for the old man's sagely skills. Sora took a step back.

"How'd you do that?"

Master Xehanort scoffed at him. "Impertinent fool! Your friends are in danger and you busy yourself accosting an old man who extends a helping hand. Educating you is a fool's errand!"

"What kind of danger is she in? Where is she?!"

Master Xehanort flashed his look at Sora again, and, even though he had prepared himself for it, he was left disturbed and shaken to the core by it. Sora shook his head, trying to clear it of the irrational effect.

"W-why… why wont you tell me?" His voice was smaller than he liked.

"Because there's nothing you can do if you go running in blindly flinging your rage around like a brick in a glass house."

Sora relaxed a bit, and then tensed himself once more. "I still don't trust you."

Master Xehanort smiled and leaned his already bent posture towards Sora.

"But now you're listening."


	3. Chapter 3

"**A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can see from a mountain top." –Unknown, as transcribed by Jiminy Cricket.**

"So… what do I do?"

Master Xehanort made a sweeping motion with his arms.

"Find your friend Miyu."

"Where is she?"

Master Xehanort repeated the gesture. "There is plenty of evidence to be found here. You could follow her easily

"Or you could tell me!"

Master Xehanort took a step closer to Sora. "And should I hold your hand on the way there?"

"If Miyu's in danger, then I need to help her right away! I don't have time to look for clues!"

"Then you should hurry."

Master Xehanort turned and began walking away as if he were simply continuing a stroll that any old man would take through a park. He glanced off to his side as he walked and said, "Oh, look: She left her things."

Sora blinked incredulously, and opened his eyes to see time moving on without any trace of Master Xehanort's presence. He dispelled his keyblade and staggered over to Miyu's bag, ripping it open without fussing with the zipper properly. He dug his hands inside, feeling around her school clothes and finding nothing but more fabric.

"How is that helpful at all?"

"Sora! What in the name of Yevon are you doing?"

Sora looked at his coach over his shoulder.

"Uh… Miyu asked me to get something from her bag for her after the game was over."

"You know where she went?"

Sora scrambled fast for another lie.

"Home."

_Keys._

Sora picked up the duffel bag and shook it as hard as he could. Aside from the zipper, nothing jangled; which meant that Miyu's keys had to be gone. Sora dropped the bag and ran.

* * *

"**Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up you'd better be running." –Anonymous, as transcribed by Jiminy Cricket.**

Sora ran. He was already winded, and partly exhausted from the Blitzball game, but he had to make sure Miyu was okay. So he ran.

"Faster."

Sora whirled his head toward the speaker and nearly slipped. Master Xehanort was hovering next to him with his arms folded behind his back, looking as complacent and old as ever. Sora mouthed, "What?" almost breathlessly.

Master Xehanort scowled. "You won't get anywhere running so slowly."

"I'll… be…"

"Out of breath!"

Master Xehanort rapped Sora across the head with surprising speed and power.

"And do you think that the darkness will care? Will it slow down so that you can catch up? It's hardly a wonder that you can't hold onto your friends with such meager dedication to their well being."

Sora sped up. He would not be put down like that without retribution. Sora felt his breathing, or rather gasping, grow ragged as his throat started to taste raw and cold.

Master Xehanort scoffed. "Is this how the Organization took hold of Kairi? Did they pass through unhindered or did they have to knock on her door?"

Sora ran faster out of a need to prove the old man' words hollow.

_I slay dragons old man._

As if reading his mind, the old sage said offhandedly, "Did Maleficent die of old age while the king's men dragged you to the top of her castle?"

Sora was sprinting now, faster than what he knew he'd be able to hold.

* * *

Kairi frowned thoughtfully. Something was definitely up with Sora. He didn't invite her to his Blitzball game, and hadn't even mentioned it, in fact. She was sitting in the bleachers anyway, thanks to Riku. But now she was even more worried. Sora had just clobbered that other guy who didn't even have the ball! Wasn't that against a rule?

Kairi stood up from her seat and scooted past several people who were too wrapped up in the game to notice her, making her way to the edge of the bleachers that overlooked the Destiny Islands team bench. Sora was there, rummaging through someone's bag. Kairi cupped her hands around her mouth and called his name, but the crowd drowned her out as a Blitzer did something that Kairi's assumed was too testosterone induced to interest her. She watched Sora shake the bag and then run towards the town, which took him behind the bleachers before he was out of sight. Kairi got off of the bleachers as fast as she could and ran around them. She stopped as soon as the backside of them came into view. There was a familiar figure lurking in the shade. She took a step forward, unknowingly removing her from everyone's line of sight. She leaned toward the figure, which was grunting lightly, to try and make out a face. It turned her way suddenly and she gasped.

* * *

Sora was still sprinting. He didn't think he'd have been able to, but he had made it the entire way at top speed. Miyu's house was in sight now and he was pointed right at the door. Anybody inside was about to get the Sora Special for breakfast.

* * *

Kairi lowered her hand from her mouth and stepped forward. "Miyu! You scared me for a moment."

* * *

Sora rammed his shoulder into the door and bounced off, knocking the wind from his chest as he hit the ground.

"Get up!"

Xehanort kicked him harshly on the side.

"Or do you think the darkness will overlook a moment of weakness?"

Sora was back on his feet before he was breathing again, and his head was swimming in turbulent waters for it. He rammed his shoulder against the door again thoughtlessly.

"Kick! Kick, you fool!"

Sora put his weight forward and busted the door open at the lock, again knocking himself backward. Master Xehanort kicked him more, screaming about uselessness and weakness, as he got to his feet. He ran into the house with his keyblade drawn, still not caught up on his breathing, and swiveled around in a full circle. It was immediately obvious that nobody was home. The lights were off, everything was in order, and the walls were so thin even the most diminutive of noises would have passed through them to Sora. Sora whirled around again to face Master Xehanort.

He tried to pant his exasperation, feeling too breathless to speak.

"What?" The old master glared at him.

Sora gave an extra hard pant as he fell to one knee.

"Do you want a bone? Speak!"

"Whe-whe… where…?" Sora gestured wildly around.

"In your thoughtless chase you ran past her."

Sora was even more bewildered now. "Why… didn't-"

"How are you supposed to learn from your own mistakes if others clean them up for you?"

Sora gesticulated at the door, visibly angering Master Xehanort more with his lack of vocals.

"What?"

"The… door."

"You can rebuild it for your foolishness. And hopefully next time you won't make the same mistake."

"Next time?! What?!" Sora jumped to his feet.

"Why would I do anything you say after this? You ran me all the way to my friend's house to break down her door for nothing! And I still don't trust you!"

As Sora said the last sentence, he felt it lose its power. It wasn't true anymore. He panted while Master Xehanort stared at him in silence. After a moment he harrumphed, an old man's chuckle.

"So you aren't too winded to speak."

He turned and walked out the door before Sora could stop him.

* * *

Miyu took a cautious step out of the shadows. "Could you get me something from my bag?"

"What?"

Kairi looked at the duffle that was sitting only twenty or so feet away. "What's wrong?"

Miyu winced and looked around to make sure no one could see them, then moved her hand away from the side of her team uniform. There was a tear in it that was rather large, and embarrassingly revealing.

"How'd-?"

"This old guy accidentally got his cane stuck on it while he brushed past me and it ripped! I grabbed my keys but someone was gonna turn around and see me, so I ran back here."

Kairi rushed over to the bag and brought it back, blushing.


	4. Chapter 4

**I've had this done for a while now. It was just missing one little section that I was having trouble writing. Oh, and I wrote another story. That too. Sorry.

* * *

**

Thump, thump, thump.

Sora was sitting on his rear with his legs sticking out in front of him, hammering away at a new doorframe that he was attaching one nail at a time to Miyu's house.

Thump, thump, thump.

He broke the door.

Thump, thump, thump.

And now he had to fix it.

Thump, thump- "Hi, Sor- oh!" thump.

Sora looked up at Selphie, who was standing down the street with Miyu and Kairi. They had all just returned from the game. They looked from him to the doorframe that was broken and had been dragged onto the lawn, to the doorframe that Sora was now nailing to the wall. He leaned forward, smacking his head against the one he was working on. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Hi."

Miyu continued walking, acting as if nothing was wrong. "Mind if I slip past you? I've gotta' get inside." Without waiting for an answer, she stepped over him.

"Sora?"

Sora smacked his head against the doorframe again. "Hi, Kairi."

Kairi moved to his side. "What are you doing?"

She was whispering, but Selphie was only standing a few feet away.

"I broke the door."

"'scuse me again."

Miyu hopped over Sora again, wearing completely new street clothes. Apparently changing quickly was one of her other many amazing abilities.

"What's the matter? You guys have never seen a broken door before?"

Kairi looked at Miyu sheepishly, and then back to Sora.

"Why? Why did you break the door?"

_Because Xehanort's dad told me to?_

Sora beat his head against the doorframe again and mumbled, "It seemed like the right thing to do at the time."

"What?"

"Kairi!"

Miyu motioned with her arm for Kairi to join her and Selphie, who was still looking apprehensively at the broken doorframe. "Come on, Kairi! I got my mom's munny pouch. We can spend the rest of the day in town."

Kairi fiddled with her fingers behind her back nervously while she faced Miyu. "But… aren't you worried about your door?"

Selphie nodded, but stopped abruptly when Miyu waved it off.

"It'll be fine."

Kairi continued wringing her fingers. "Are you sure?"

"Of course. Besides," She leaned around Kairi to speak at Sora. "He'll have it done before we get back!"

She flashed a smile, swiveled on her toes, and grabbed Selphie's wrist to bring her along down the street. Kairi looked back at Sora.

"Can I talk to you later?"

"Yeah," Sora mumbled miserably.

Kairi ran to catch up with the trio of girls and they disappeared in the distance. Sora began beating his head against the doorframe again.

Thump, thump, thump.

* * *

A figure stepped out of a shop in town and pulled a lock of hair from its pocket. It lifted it to his face and took a long slow whiff before returning it to his pocket. That was usually all it needed. Sometimes, when the urge got really bad, the figure would need to follow her, watch her. But not right now. The smell would be enough. Besides, she was on her way here. Maybe I could follow her after a quick snack, the figure thought to itself. Maybe she'd be alone this time and he could take something else. Maybe he could lure her into an alley. It was wishful thinking at best. Besides, that kind of thing wouldn't go unnoticed in a place like this. The figure checked its watch.

"Excuse me."

The figure looked up at someone who was facing it.

"What?"

"You're blocking the doorway."

The figure looked about itself and nodded while it scooted to the side. It memorized the face of the person who had so rudely accosted it and thought, if I ever get any power, you're going to be on my list.

* * *

Kairi walked alongside Miyu and Selphie, trying to stay with the conversation and not worry about Sora.

"What's wrong with Lulu?"

Miyu looked at Kairi suspiciously. "You've never seen her stare, have you?"

Selphie shivered. "She's creepy."

Kairi shook her head. "She stares?"

Miyu and Selphie both shot her a look. "Are you kidding me? She cuts diamonds with those eyes."

She animated with her hands, pushing two fingers away from her eyes while she furrowed her brow.

Kairi forced a laugh, not really getting why it was so funny. They were in the town now, passing most of the eateries so they could get on to the real shopping.

"Well, maybe it's just the way her face is."

"She has a different face when she's talking to Wakka." Selphie smiled at her snide remark and Miyu nearly burst at the seams with laughter. Kairi was busy noticing a boy who was staring at them. "Who's that?"

The other two girls watched him curiously and all blushed when he winked. Miyu nudged Selphie and said, "Hey. You're the only single one."

Selphie scowled. "Thanks for reminding me." She smiled again and waved at the boy. He raised a corner of his mouth in a smirk. The girls strolled past whoever their new admirer was without any more noticeable incidents than giggles and blushing and continued on their way to the shopping center of the town.

* * *

Thump, thump, th- "This is how you spend your time?!"

Sora felt something smack his head, and it wasn't the doorframe.

"You should be busy!"

Sora resumed hammering feebly without looking up at the sagely old man.

"Do you realize the importance of the time you are wasting?"

Sora hammered harder to drown out his voice and pretended he didn't hear.

"Fine." The old man turned, placing his feet harder on the ground than usual so Sora would hear him leaving. "As long as none of your friends have gone into town I suppose there's no need in me warning you."

Sora stopped hammering and Master Xehanort stopped walking. Sora stared intently at the door, willing himself not to take the bait. Master Xehanort smiled at that.

"Finish the door quickly young keyblade master. You have work to do."

* * *

**Well now. That's a little creepy. **


	5. Chapter 5

"**Rest is for the weary. Sleep is for the dead." –Unknown, as transcribed by Jimminy Cricket**

Sora dropped his hammer and kicked the door he had been working on. It shook slightly, but he wasn't making a piano. And besides, Kairi was in trouble again… maybe.

"Well?"

Sora massaged his hammering arm while he turned to face the ridiculously old Xehanort, or Master Xehanort, as he wanted to be called.

"Well, what?"

"You look tired. Perhaps you should rest."

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I-"

Master Xehanort swatted Sora across the head. "Buffoon!"

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?"

"Your friends are in danger! You build a door and think you are finished?"

Sora rubbed his head with the sore arm and rubbed his sore arm with the other.

"Well… I can't fight bad guys if I'm tired, now can I?"

Master Xehanort nodded thoughtfully. "That is a good point."

Sora let out a sigh of relief. He was helpless to make the old man leave him alone by any brute force, he knew that, but having convinced him to be merciful through logic was overwhelmingly satisfying.

"It's too bad for Kairi though. Enjoy your rest."

The old man disappeared in a flurry of smoke, leaving Sora to have a nasty conversation with his conscience.

* * *

Kairi sipped conservatively from the straw in her drink while Selphie did the same next to her. Miyu was eating it by the spoonful. Kairi looked at Selphie to try and start a conversation. She had forgotten the part where they actually talked, so Kairi and Selphie stared at each other until Selphie broke to look at Miyu. Miyu froze mid gulp with the cup raised over her head. Kairi looked away from Selphie at Miyu, who shifted her eyes to look back at Kairi.

"What?" A glob of Paopu Slushy fell from the cup and landed on her face and they all broke into hysterical laughter. Selphie grabbed her sides and bent over under the table to hide her face, while Kairi covered her mouth, again, as conservatively as her stepfather had raised her. Miyu was probably doing something equally unique, but their observer didn't care about her. She had left his mind, and therefore his vision. Out of sight, out of mind, and vice versa. Selphie sat up straight again, but only for a moment as the sight of Miyu started her on another fit. And then she was gone too, and only Kairi was left, sitting there laughing so sincerely with that perfect, refined giggle. Her eyes sparkled with the fire of a rare gem and her hair danced in even the slightest of breezes as if it were alive and wild. Her cheeks were flushed red with an innocent blush that would warm the heart of a tyrant, and her skin looked softer than anything else in the world her admirer could imagine. He had to have her. But first she would have to meet him. And presentation would be everything. Now would be the time. He had to catch her off guard, get her attention, and do something so amazing that she would forget about the fool that abandoned her for two years.

* * *

"Déjà vu, anyone?"

Sora turned his head to see Master Xehanort accompanying him on his run again.

"I certainly hope you wont have excuses for me again."

Sora scowled and pressed on. He knew where he was going, and he wouldn't have to risk kicking down any doors this time. This time, however, he was nervous.

"Could… whew. Could you give me a clue… as… to… what… is… happening?"

Sora timed his words to not interrupt the rhythm of his breathing.

"Of course not."

Sora nodded.

"You're going slower."

Sora sped up.

"You're still going slower."

Master Xehanort left it at that and disappeared, yet again leaving Sora to his own devices. He sped up again, back to the full sprint that he was familiar with.

Moments later, he was in town.

* * *

Miyu wiped the slushy off of her face while her two friends laughed at her with beat red faces. Her entire face was sticky now, and some of the juice had even gotten onto her blouse. She sighed.

"Guys, it's really not that funny."

Kairi and Selphie sobered up quickly and nodded solemnly.

"Sorry."

Selphie almost stopped a laugh in her throat and her face turned red again, leaving them jubilating at the expense of Miyu for a third time.

The waiter stopped by and set a bill on the table, keeping himself as invisible as a servant could be. They finished their laughing eventually and helped Miyu find some napkins to get herself decent with until the waiter returned again to take their munny. He approached the table with a conspicuous smile and lifted the bill in just as attention getting a manner. The girls looked up at him.

"Having fun over here?"

He addressed Kairi only.

She looked at Selphie, then at Miyu, who gave a discrete swipe across her neck with her finger. KAiri looked back at the waiter.

"Oh. I'm sorry if we were making too much noise."

"Don't worry about it. We… Hey, aren't you Kairi? The Mayor's daughter?"

Kairi nodded and Selphie rolled her eyes.

Miyu's jaw line slacked just enough to show her disinterest.

"You can definitely make as much noise as you want." He winked, causing Miyu and Selphie to do a double take and gape in awe.

"I'll go ring this up for you."

The waiter turned around just in time to catch a slug in the jaw from someone who had ran at him from behind. He was sent backwards over the table just in time for a third person, who was disguised by the flurry of tablecloths, to jump over the waiter and land a strike at whoever had attacked him. From there, chaos ensued, and Kairi, Miyu, and Selphie screamed loud enough for a flashbang to feel insecure. Kairi quit her screeching long enough to look up and see someone run from the store, only to be chased by the second someone a moment later.

* * *

Sora turned into a plaza where people were muttering with interest and pointing at a restaurant that sounded louder than a brothel; louder than what a friend had told him a brothel sounded like, anyway. He turned towards it just in time to catch up with someone who had just exited at top speed and the chase was on. They ran through alleyways, up staircases, over rooftops, down hills, around corners, through busy parts of town, under market carts, over walls, through windows, between people who were walking together, and through everything Sora had never thought he'd have to run through until whomever he was pursuing had finally run himself into a dead end alleyway. Sora stopped at the entrance. The runner was walking towards the impeding wall slowly, as if he had given up, but didn't appear fatigued at all. He reached the wall at the end while Sora watched, and then stared at it defiantly.

"Hey!"

The figure at the end of the alley turned his head slightly, but not enough to reveal anything.

"I was expecting the hero of all worlds to at least be able to keep up with me."

He turned back to the wall and then punched it lightly.

"Clever slip you gave me there. You hid under the cart," he muttered to no one in particular.

Sora summoned the keyblade and took a defensive stance. "You tried to hurt Kairi, didn't you!"

The figure raised its arms slightly and was suddenly bound into a suit of armor that fit itself to his muscles and covered his face. It was the same suit that Sora had seen Riku wear in that world that was the end of all worlds. The figure spoke again, but with a voice that was distorted by his smooth, silver mask.

"No."

* * *

Kairi's admirer peeked his head out from under a cart in town. In hindsight, he was surprised the maneuver had worked. As he had made to jump over it, he saw someone wearing the same clothes running in the same direction on the other side. After he landed, he had ducked ad rolled backward under the cart hoping to shake his two pursuers, and it had worked. Kairi didn't seem very impressed about that waiter though. Maybe if she had seen how he had escaped like this. That was it. He needed to show her his wit. Anyone could beat Sora in the brains department. That would be the way to win her affection.

**WTF? Dark Soldier was chasing someone else? Why?**

**Who is this creeper? Is he an OC? Is he someone we know?**

**Who will he try to kill?**

**Hehehe. Only the author knows, and it will blow your mind like a counter-culture Hoover.**


	6. Chapter 6

"**It pays to be a winner." – Special Forces Mantra, as transcribed by Jimminy Cricket**

The armored figure at the end of the alley, the broken door on Miyu's front lawn, and the burning in Sora's lungs were all trying to tell him one thing: "Cut your losses."

But Sora was never one to follow good advice, especially in cases like these. For every toe someone put over the line to hurt Kairi, Sora would always put seven to hurt them back. That was possibly the one idea that stuck with him after years of Sunday school. He had finally cornered his opponent in an alleyway, and was not about to let him leave.

"Who are you? Why did you try to hurt Kairi?"

The armored person Sora had pursued was flagrantly refusing to turn away from the wall and face him, but he was kind enough to answer, "I didn't. You might have figured that out if you were watching her yourself."

The words hit Sora harder than a slap to the face, and it made him want to hit back.

"You still haven't told me who you are. What's the matter? Chicken?"

The armored figure pivoted on his heel unnaturally, somehow closing the distance between them, and was face-to-face with Sora before he could react.

"Chicken?"

Sora backpedaled several steps and reasserted his stance with less security than before. The figure had gotten way to close.

"Yeah. Y-you're a chicken if you can't even tell someone your own name!"

"That's a good point." The armored figure nodded. "But I'm not the one who's afraid of my own shadow."

Sora dropped his stance. "What?"

The Dark Soldier summoned a weapon and lunged before Sora could react, striking in the gut and leaving him winded and hurting- in hindsight, not a very noticeable difference from a moment before. Sora parried wildly, effectively blocking a phantom strike while another, more real one, hit him on the side of his kneecap. He fell and felt the butt of the weapon on the bridge of his nose. Water filled his eyes helpfully and blood splattered his mouth. He swung again and hit the figure in the gut, giving him just enough hope to feel absolutely crushed when a boot rammed itself perfectly under his ribs. His insides retched and he fell over on his back, dropping the keyblade in the process. The figure groaned in disappointment and tapped Sora on the side lightly with his lightning-fast weapon.

"Is that it? Does the hero of light surrender so easily?"

Sora coughed and swallowed some blood as he sucked the air back in.

The figure kicked him in the side, winding him a third time.

"Are you done? Is that all you can contribute to the fight?"

Sora grabbed the ground with one hand, summoned the keyblade again with the other, lifted himself just enough to swivel his feet away from the figure and get them planted, and exploded off of the ground, swinging wildly over his head. He struck gold with the keyblade, and followed it up with his body mass, knocking the enemy over. He felt an arm slither under his jaw and tighten on his throat. Another that went behind his head braced it and they both squeezed. He was on top, but not in a good way. The air he didn't have was showing no signs of arriving soon.

"There is no light at the end of the tunnel. There is no luck. There is only effort, which you don't have."

The continued verbal assaults brought Sora back to the task at hand. He tried to turn in the grip unsuccessfully and considered blacking out just as the enigmatic soldier chided him again. "I certainly hope Kairi puts up more of a fight than this."

Sora had nothing left in him. His oxygen had been depleted long before he had caught up on their run, his insides felt like they had been packed into a pillow and used like a wrecking ball- only without the pillow- and he was pinned in the arm-bar grip with no hope of escaping. But this wasn't about trying his hardest or doing his best; this was about survival. In matters of survival, there is no good enough. There is only live or die. It does not pay to do your best, or try your hardest. It only pays to win, by any means necessary. Sora slipped his head out of the grip like sand through a fist and ran up a wall of the alley to jump off of and swoop down hard, fast, and surreally on his opponent. He landed feet first on the silver faceplate of the armor, jumped off, and began swiping away with his claws. The armored figure raised his weapon to block the flurry of blows and was pushed backwards. Sora's reach failed him, so he made several rapid arcane gestures in the air, raised his hands above his head, and threw a ball of darkness with all of his weight. It detonated in front of his enemy and knocked him out of the alleyway. Sora landed on his hands and dropped to all fours before launching off of his hind legs and soaring just inches above the ground to close the distance again. His opponent vanished, the same way he had before, and reappeared on his feet with a shoulder waiting patiently for Sora's face. He stopped his glide, grabbed the ground, and postponed, matching defense with defense. The armored figure was holding whatever weapon he had been blunting Sora with behind his back to hide it. Sora didn't care why; he was pugnacious in the extreme. Whoever this was had to pay for whatever it was that he had done to Kairi, if he had done anything, or had, in fact, been anywhere near Kairi. Sora brushed the bothersome logic aside and kicked his feet in the air behind himself impatiently.

"Why don't you take that mask off? Afraid I'm gonna' scratch your face?"

"You already did."

Sora froze, accentuating the fact that he had been shifting his weight continually. The dark soldier laughed, again with a distorted voice. "And you didn't recognize me."

Sora went wide eyed and stood up unsteadily.

"Interesting transformation."

Sora blinked confusedly, then shook his head and summoned the keyblade on instinct.

"You're just trying to get into my head! It won't work!"

"Believe me, Sora. Your head is the last place I would like to be."

Sora ignored his answer.

"What did you try to do?"

"Save Kairi. Ironic, isn't it?"

Sora furrowed his brow at the soldier, whose masked face and static stance made him unreadable, like a statue with a voice.

"You're lying!"

"I'm not."

"Then take off the mask!"

The dark soldier tilted his head down the street that the alley was connected to. It occurred to Sora that he might run, which was not a competition Sora was likely to win twice.

"We aren't that far from the café."

Sora took a step toward the armored figure, who didn't respond.

"What Café?"

"The one I saved Kairi at."

"You didn't save her!"

"That's my point. She's screaming."

The soldier turned and ran, and Sora gave chase reluctantly. He got around the corner onto the street and saw that his enigmatic foe was gone. So he would run alone.

**How much running has Sora done today?**

**Who is the Dark Soldier?**

**Was he telling the truth?**


	7. Chapter 7

**You all thought I was dead.**

**You all thought you'd never read a chapter of SRH again.**

**You thought wrong. :)  
**

* * *

"Plagiarism is the greatest form of flattery." -Ancient proverb, as transcribed by Jiminy Crickett.

* * *

Kairi's secret admirer sat on a bench across the plaza from the café she was in. He was pensive, very pensive. So pensive, in fact, that all he could see again was her, the rest of his vision being blurred away as superfluous. The reason for his pensiveness was his failure at wooing her by beating up a flirtatious waiter. It was a mistake, in hindsight. And he needed to think of a proper way to make her like him more than she liked Sora.

_So how do I impress her? Should I wait for her to have a problem and then MacGyver up a solution? That would take too long. I've got it! I'll go right up to her and tell her how much I love her! That didn't work so well last time. In fact, I should probably lay low for a while. But that's not Sora's style, and she likes Sora. So maybe I should be persistent? Yeah! Of course._

He stood from his bench and walked into the café, where he was met with incredulous stares. It probably was a stupid idea to walk back into the restaurant when he assaulted a waiter only a few minutes ago, but this was an exception for sure.

He gulped his fear down and made his way nonchalantly toward her table. As he did, she left with her friends for the woman's restroom. Logic stopped him from following them all the way in there, but this left him standing in the middle of the restaurant feeling stupid.

_I wonder if I look presentable? Does Sora ever look presentable? Maybe I do look presentable and should try to look like Sora? Hmm._

He made his way to the men's room.

* * *

Kairi popped her head up from the ground shakily. "Is everyone alright?"

She stood up slowly and looked about herself. Selphie was hugging her knees to her chest, but still sitting in her chair. Miyu was in her chair as well, but was clenching her fists and eyelids closed. Kairi put a hand on Selphie's shoulder.

"Are you alright, Selphie?"

Selphie nodded, then looked over Kairi's shoulder in surprise. "Oh?"

Kairi swiveled to see a boy about her age holding a camera.

"Hi! Jimmy Olsen, from the Daily Planet. You're Kairi, right? Can I get a picture?"

He snapped one before she had time to protest and then focused his attentions on the overturned table and spilled paopu drinks for an environment shot.

"O…kay."

Kairi moved to Miyu's side and leaned in front of her. "Miyu?"

She whispered something under her breath, but kept her clenched stance.

Kairi leaned in closer to her and asked, "What?"

"Two."

"Two what?"

"One."

Miyu took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she opened her eyes. "Are they gone?"

Kairi nodded.

"Hmm." She unclenched her fists. "I'm going to go clean myself up."

Miyu stood from her chair with rigid limbs and made her way to the women's room still walking rigidly.

Kairi and Selphie exchanged nervous glances.

"Do you think she's okay?"

Selphie shook her head. "She can get _really_ angry. Especially on days that her door gets kicked down."

Kairi frowned thoughtfully. "That's happened before?"

Selphie nodded slowly.

Kairi wrung her fingers behind her back. "We should go check on her."

They rose from their crouched positions on the ground and walked to the restroom, hand in hand and entered the bathroom cautiously.

Miyu had locked herself in a stall. Kairi shared a glance with Selphie and mouthed, "is she crying?"

Selphie nodded and pressed her ear against the stall.

"Miyu?"

Miyu sobbed in response.

Kairi gestured at Seplhie to try again.

"Miyu, is that you?"

"Yeah."

"Are you alright?"

"No."

"What's wrong?"

She continued crying, prompting Kairi to try.

"Miyu. We're your friends. If something's wrong, you should tell us."

"I..."

She sobbed again before continuing.

"My blouse is ruined. And..."

She trailed off long enough for Kairi to say, "we could try washing it off?"

"It's not just that."

Selphie chimed in with an unsympathetic, "it's not a boy problem, is it?"

Miyu was silent, leading Kairi to blush and to try not laugh at her friend's expense.

"I was in history class, and every time I said something..."

Her sobs overtook her again, and Kairi and Selphie waited painfully long for her to finish, "Every time I said something, he'd say, 'that's what she said.'"

Selphie gasped while Kairi frowned.

"What a Douche! He can't treat you like that! Who was it?"

"It's that idiot that hit the waiter."

Kairi and Selphie both made an, "oh" face at each other.

Kairi asked, "He was the one saying that to you?"

"It was one of his friends, but he was laughing."

"Well, we should go do something about it."

Miyu was silent for a moment, as if she was thinking, then continued sobbing.

"I... I want to stay here for a little while."

"O-okay then."

Kairi and Selphie stood patiently outside her stall for several minutes until Miyu emerged, looking fresh, but slightly red around the eyes.

"Okay. Let's go deal with him."

* * *

Master Xehanort stepped onto cobblestone, leaving the world of darkness behind him, and looked about himself. The café across the square, the reason he had come, was filled with confused individuals, a tempting environment for heartless. But none were there. He assumed at first that Sora had made short work of them, but Sora wasn't there either. Master Xehanort took a short, hunched stroll to get closer, looking as old as he possibly could. He stopped about twenty feet away, and sniffed the air suspiciously. There was darkness there for sure, and Sora was several streets away. Master Xehanort thought back to where he left Sora, running from Miyu's house on the same road Kairi had used. How could he have ended up so far away from where she was? The Old Sage took a mental note about Sora's navigational skill. Something would have to be done about that. He sniffed the air again, and swiveled on his heel to face what was by most normal appearances a young blitzer. He was leaning his weight against the back side of a bench nonchalantly, and was looking warmly back at The Old Sage.

"You stole my name, young man."

"Someone once told me that plagiarism is the greatest form of flattery."

Master Xehanort grunted his approval. "Wise words. I thought I saw you at that blitzball game."

The blitzer nodded, then turned to face the commotion in the restaurant. "So... what have I missed?"

"You remember the keybearers?"

"TAV?"

Master Xehanort cringed at the acronym, but responded, "TAV," in confirmation.

The blitzer nodded. "They won."

"That is a relative term. We are alive, and they are dead."

Someone stepped out of the café and snapped a picture of them quickly before disappearing inside again.

"How?"

The blitzer faced his master abruptly.

"Time has passed."

Master Xehanort kept his gaze fixed on the restaurant, searching for any sign of Sora's presence.

"Speaking of which, where have you been for all of that time, young Xehanort?"

The blitzer perked his eyebrows in response to the question.

"Looking for you."

"Really?"

Master Xehanort looked away from the café and glared at his apprentice.

The Enigmatic Soldier conceded. "After I spawned from the pod you placed in the darkness, I became lost. When I found the light, I went directly to Ansem's castle, to try to confront him."

"By yourself."

The Enigmatic Soldier nodded.

"Foolish child."

"He's dead."

Master Xehanort nodded. "Killed by his own hand. I know."

"I found a computer there, one he kept personal until his death. According to it, we died, the heartless returned under the command of a witch, and more keybearers arrived to fight her. That's as far as I read."

Xehanort's apprentice looked pensive for a moment. "Sora, Riku, and Kairi. I've fought Sora already-"

"What?!"

Master Xehanort rounded on him and raised his hand to strike.

"He's fine! I winded him a little and tested his weaknesses."

Master Xehanort lowered his hand slowly, but kept his gaze manic.

"Their wellbeing is paramount to our goals, you fool!"

The Apprentice nodded. "I'm aware of that, Master. I was just here saving Kairi's life from that maniac. I fought Sora as a test. He's easy. You've always said-"

"Good." Master Xehanort relaxed his stance. "The other two cannot fight. If you can defeat him, you can defeat them."

"Well, they fight better togeth-"

"Not so."

Master Xehanort nodded at the restaurant. "I have seen Kairi. A rabbit could overwhelm her if it set its mind to it."

As they were watching, several of Destiny Island's finest arrived at the restaurant and entered to provide their assistance. Two other men, dressed smartly in three-piece suits and smoking pipes reminiscent of England took notice and followed them inside. The two Xehanorts watched them enter and then resumed their conversation.

"What happened here, Master?"

"While you were having your fun with Sora, he was supposed to be here. Instead, the witch's agent was given free room to strike."

"Are we enemies with the witch?"

"Very much so. She seeks to control Kingdom Hearts."

"Ah. Competition." The apprentice shifted his weight off of the bench and straightened out. "The agent is in there somewhere?"

"Perhaps. But I do not know who he is."

"So I'll go to the source. Where's the witch?"

Sora entered the square then, and Master Xehanort flicked his hand in an arcane gesture, rendering them invisible. He watched Sora for a moment, then turned his gaze on his apprentice.

"Why is his nose bleeding?"

The younger Xehanort scratched the back of his head timidly.

* * *

Sora rounded a corner and slowed from a jog to a walk, gasping for air and hugging his cramp, which had a small part of body attached to it, thinking he would keel over and die any moment. He couldn't do it here though. He had to make sure Kairi was okay. Sora dragged his feet heavily in the right direction, grumbling internally about the weight of his shoes, friction, gravity, and all of the other minute forces that he never noticed until now. Sora continued to drag his legs forward one at a time, feeling the burn and overworked muscles in his legs until he reached the door of the restaurant and pushed it open with his weight. As he did, his center of balance jumped three feet to the left and flipped over, leaving him at the mercy of the door handle until it tip-toed back into his head as if it had been there the whole time. He summoned his breath and screamed,

"Karwi!"

Sora saw blood spurt off his face in a lazy glob as he shouted unintelligibly. It shot a foot or two into the air, stopped mid-flight, caught on a strand that was still sticking to his face, and fell back onto his neck. He felt around and realized that his nose had bled all over his mouth the whole time he was running back, and had mixed with his saliva, confounding his speech. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at him now, stunned. He wiped his mouth and tried again after a moment of panting for his life.

"Where's Kairi?"

Someone pointed at the restroom, just as she emerged with her friends. They all backpedalled and froze at the sight of him, but Kairi stepped forward again.

"Sora?"

"Are you okay, Kairi?"

"Yes, but... you-"

Sora nodded his satisfaction and passed out to a chorus of awwwws. A camera flashed in his face, illuminating the room for a brief moment, and then everything went dark.

* * *

The Enigmatic soldier scratched his chin uneasily and mumbled, "I might have hit him a little too hard."

Master Xehanort rapped his apprentice across the head. "Fool."


	8. Chapter 8

**I must say that this is possibly the longest chapter I've ever written. However, there is action, mystery, romance, humor, a reference to rich people, and, of course, a quote.  
**

**"The Heartless consume the Careless." - Maleficent, as transcribed by Jimminy Crickett.**

**

* * *

**

That night, as Sora was tucked into a bed, covered in bandages, as Kairi was scribbling in her diary, as Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus were reminiscing about beating up Sora with their toys, Riku took a walk with Miyu. They had started at her house, of course, as Riku had arrived there to ask her out for the stroll in the first place. So she had made sure to change into a third set of clothes for the day. She had found an ankle length skirt that matched with a short-sleeved blouse and some vanity boots. She had managed to throw her hair into shape as beautifully curled locks, sure to impress any boy, and then had picked her smell at random from her stock of perfumes, having run out of time. Riku was wearing his usual... well... his usual.

"It's getting dark out." Riku took a peek over his shoulder. "Do you wanna' go inside?"

Miyu shook her head, to emphasize her hair, and smiled. "That's alright."

They continued walking in silence through the town, staring at each other as they did. IT was comforting for them both, having someone to always be around. Riku looked over his shoulder less often around Miyu, but it was still a habit. He peeked again, only briefly, and spotted motion: a raven swooping from one side of the street to the other.

"Riku?"

"Hmm?"

Miyu stopped walking.

"Are we in love, do you think?"

Riku stopped with her and thought for a long time before answering,

"Well, we're more than friends for sure."

She giggled at that, and then grabbed his hands. He squeezed hers gently, returning the affection, and then considered it further. "I don't know, but... I think we have something special."

She giggled at that, smiling suggestively.

"How special?"

Riku returned the look.

"Special."

She clasped her hands behind her back and gave her shoulder-length hair a proper twirl, just in case the air wasn't doused with her pheromones.

"Special enough to take on a walk, or are you ready to kiss me yet?"

It should be noted here that there is a switch in the male mind. When the switch is on, work is easy and thinking becomes very efficient. Miyu had officially flicked it down to "Girls Mode."

They embraced like lightning with empty heads, or perhaps filled hearts, and thought nothing of the world around them. Even Riku was oblivious to his surroundings for a while, missing the raven that cawed at them rather than minding its own business, the bicycle boy who rode by screaming, "Extra! Extra! Small Town Murder! Read all about it!", and even missing the approach of an armored figure. The Enigmatic Soldier stopped several feet away from them and tapped his weapon against an armored shin to alert them to his presence.

Riku didn't respond to the hailing, so the armored figure tapped him on the shoulder with the weapon next. Riku brushed in his general direction without breaking away from Miyu. Young Xehanort, who was the armor's new bearer, tapped again, and received four less fingers in response. He waited patiently for a moment, then looked up and down the street. The sun had almost set, and nobody was left on the road to cause problems, so he cast an aero spell that ripped the lovers apart. Miyu fell over backwards in the process, and Riku held onto his footing by sheer luck, or perhaps skill.

"Hey! What's the big idea? Miyu, you al-"

As Riku took a step toward Miyu to help her up, The Enigmatic Soldier placed himself in the way. Riku straightened out his stance, summoned the keyblade and stared, bewildered, at the armored suit he used to wear. "Miyu. Run."

The Dark Soldier turned his faceplate toward Miyu, who stood from the ground and backed away quickly. She stopped when her back hit the front of the nearest shop. The town had closed several hours before, so no one was inside. She gulped hard and timidly surveyed their accoster.

"Riku, who is he?"

Riku took a step to his right, attempting to reestablish his line of sight to Miyu, and was cut off by a cross step from the armored figure.

"Miyu, run!"

"But-"

"Miyu, get out of here. Now!"

The Dark Soldier waved his free hand in her direction, impeding her escape with an arcane wall. She hit it full on as she tried to run, making its hexagonal honeycomb structure visible for a second before fading away. She tried to run the other way in a panic and hit another wall, this time keeping her balance as she met it. Riku pointed his keyblade at the figure shakily.

"What do you want?"

The Dark Soldier tilted his head to look at the keyblade, and then parried it to the side with his own weapon. Riku narrowed his eyes suspiciously at what he now realized was another keyblade.

"Yeah. I've seen fakes before."

The Dark Soldier, seemingly prone to erratic and violent behavior, made a horizontal slash at Riku's belly. Riku shifted his weight to his back foot, bent over to move his stomach back, and readied a lightning spell as the offending swipe passed him harmlessly. He shifted his weight forward again, took a quick step, and thrusted his hand. The Dark Soldier parried the strike downward, releasing the spell to the ground.

Miyu used her hands to find the wall nearest to the battle and yelled,

"Just let us go! What do you want?"

The armored figure rushed forward another step, pitting himself into almost grappling combat, too close for anything but crippling jabs and killing blows. Riku threw an elbow to the head, which met a hand, and nearly received a knee in the kidney for it, but saved by twisting his torso, redirecting it to his readied washboard abs where it was as harmless as a slap. Xehanort took advantage of Riku's twist, however, and struck behind his knee with his keyblade, pinning him to the ground. Riku reacted quickly, twisting his whole body around on the pinned knee to deliver a spinning back kick, scraping the skin horribly in the process. Xehanort was forced to release him to avoid being hit, allowing Riku to spring back to his feet and swivel around in search of his opponent. But The Dark Soldier had disappeared. Riku turned to face Miyu. She shrieked just in time for him to take a slug in the face from Xehanort, who vanished again. Riku knew this game well. He jumped, spun, and parried as broadly as he could, blocking by chance the next strike that materialized out of thin air. The third one, however, caught him in the gut. The fourth hit his kneecap, the fifth struck him in the lower back, and the sixth was aimed at his jaw, a knockout blow for sure. It veered wildly to the side and broke his collar bone instead. Riku landed on his back hard, and fought off the shell shock as best as he knew how. The Dark Soldier froze, motionless, posed exactly as he had been when he hit Riku last. But slowly, very slowly in fact, he reached his free hand around to his back and grabbed hold of a pocket knife that was lodged between his shoulder blades. He jerked it loose and pivoted on his heel to face Miyu. Somehow she had freed herself from the magical cage. But now she was the target, and she had no weapon. She took a gulp and lowered her throwing arm shakily, changing her glance from the hole in his back to the knife he had pulled out of it. The reflection in her eyes was of a juggernaut.

Miyu dropped to her knees, folded her hands, and screamed, "Don't hurt me! Please!"

Riku swiped with his keyblade at the Dark Soldier's legs, but missed as he teleported an inch forward. Xehanort watched the knife twirl around in his fingers while he thought, then stopped abruptly as he heard Riku groaning in an effort to stand.

"I would never think of stabbing a woman in the back, if that's what you mean."

With a flick of his wrist the knife shot towards her gut, where she caught it on reflex just in time. She flashed a smile that reeked of combat high and let loose a giggle.

"Keep it this time."

Xehanort turned to face Riku, who was trying to get up with only one arm (his other was now useless), and pointed a finger at him.

"Rest."

The words hit Riku softer than a pillow to the back of the head, easing him into sleep, but he refused to be left defenseless and made it to his knees before Xehanort whispered, "sleep."

Riku blinked for longer than he liked, but forced himself to his feet, where he swayed unsteadily.

Xehanort pointed the finger in Riku's face, only an inch from his nose. "You've known the darkness before, haven't you, Riku?"

Riku dug his way to the bottom of his soul, to the place of last resort, the bare essentials that made him Riku, what he had before his dreams and ideas about everything, down to the question that powered his soul. _Who are you, _it asked_. And what are you doing here?_ The right answer threw a new load of fuel on the fire. With a primal roar, he raised his weapon to strike, and was knocked unconscious by an uppercut.

Xehanort smirked behind his mask at the lump that was Riku's body on the street.

"Patheti-"

A knife found its way into his back again, as if to say, "HI!"

This time, Miyu was still holding onto it. Xehanort flipped her over his back and pulled the knife out in the same motion, landing her at his feet with the blade at her throat. She shivered defenselessly and began blubbering a stream of "P-p-p-pl" that never manifested itself as a full word.

"Who are you?"

Miyu was caught off guard by the question, the pain in the base of her spine, and her suddenly worse predicament. "P-P-Please! I didn't mean to hurt yo-"

"Then why are there holes in my back?"

The knife tightened against her throat.

"No! Please! I'm just a blitzball player. I'm a girl! You wouldn't hurt a girl would you?"

She thought back a short moment.

"A virgin! I'm a virgin! You can't hurt-"

Xehanort pushed her to the ground, moved more by the desperate stream of excuses rather than the excuses themselves, and took a step back before displaying his statuesque nature again. Miyu stood to her knees and folded her hands to him.

"Thank you! Thank you. I'm so sorry. Please, just let us go. We didn't bother you. We-"

Miyu's hand moved to her left shoe, a vanity boot, as if to grab another knife. Xehanort couldn't believe his eyes.

"If you have a death wish, just say it!"

She looked down at her hand and appeared to panic before clasping her hands together again and continuing her fervent begging.

"No! No, please! Why did you hurt Riku? Why did you attack us? We have nothing to do with you!"

"He could cure those wounds for twenty munny. I didn't do..."

Xehanort trailed off as it occurred to him that he wasn't rationalizing with a normal person. She had definitely been reaching for a knife. She was playing him.

"What's your name?"

Fake tears welled up in Miyu's eyes- "No! You're not going to curse me are you?"- and turned to sobs. "No, Please! Leave us alone!"

Xehanort ignored her mask. Two could play the game of persuasion, and this girl was a worthy opponent for any game. He thought for a moment, considering her and her ability to babble, searching for a weakness, something emotional. He circled her to the right, sizing her up, and then circled to the left, checking her symmetry. In a hand-to-hand battle, symmetry is important. He decided that she was weak. Strong for her build and gender, but weak nonetheless.

"You said you were a virgin?"

Her irises contracted considerably. She was afraid for sure now. Xehanort stepped up to her, and then bent himself down to her level, so her face could feel the unforgiving cold of his steel mask.

"Tell me your name."

In a quick flurry of motion he caught her hand half-way to his neck, holding the knife she had pulled from her boot.

"Why? Why do you need to know my name?"

"I want to know what kind of girl catches knives, dispels highly advanced magic that she shouldn't even recognize at her age, and talks her way out of anything."

Xehanort squeezed her wrist until she dropped the knife, causing more obvious stress in her. She grunted under the pain, but he didn't stop squeezing. He pressed harder, feeling her squirm under the pressure. It wasn't sadism; it was a test. He was poking at the surface, trying to find out what was underneath. Miyu started crying, and then screaming and hitting him, trying to make him let go, afraid of her bones being ground into powder. But still the armored figure contracted his fingers, still he was as static as a statue, and still his metal face reflected her own tears.

"What do you want? I'm sorry! Uncle! You win! IT HURTS!"

Xehanort didn't give in. He didn't feel like getting stabbed in the back again. He tightened his grip, and wasn't ashamed at all when he heard her wrist snap. The base of her palm was suddenly disproportionately larger than the end of her arm; and her face contorted into a knotted up portrait of pain. She froze there, disbelieving. Xehanort dropped her hand into her lap, and stood erect over her.

"Well?"

Miyu closed her eyes, and let loose a scream like her soul was being dragged by its fingernails across the cobblestone street. Xehanort waited patiently, expecting a dagger to come from her at any minute, or a spell perhaps, but was quickly distracted by a raven, which had found the whole affair very interesting. It was sitting on a branch nearby, in one of those trees that city planners decide should be in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Well little raven," Xehanort had addressed the fowl, but only for Miyu's benefit. "It looks like she doesn't want to tell me her name. How much longer will I have to hurt her for, hmm?"

The raven turned its gleaming green eyes on him and smiled wickedly, a feat anatomically impossible for any normal bird. "Nevermore," it replied. The armored figure wasn't sure how to respond to that, and didn't until he was distracted by another loud crack. Miyu was curled up in a ball now on her side, facing away from him. "I'm not afraid of you," she mumbled.

Xehanort alternated his eyes between the raven and Miyu uncertainly.

"I'm not..." Miyu grunted and contorted into a tighter ball as another crack sounded. "I'm not... afraid... of anyone." She rolled onto her knees and attempted to stand. Her face was flushed red from the exertion of conveying her pain, and her eyes were so muddled with tears she couldn't see. "I'm... not..." She gave a quick shriek as her arm snapped again, and Xehanort noted, with some surprise, that the hand she was cradling it with was emanating a dark green aura. Her wrist snapped into shape, and she tested her fingers with a successful flex. "I'm not afraid of darkness!"

She shot a spiteful gaze at Xehanort, who remained still as ever.

"You're afraid to tell me your na-"

"Miyu. But don't you dare ever use it."

Xehanort bowed formally. "I'll remember that." He opened a corridor in the darkness behind himself and stepped backwards through it, adding, "Miyu" just before he disappeared.

Miyu felt things manifest themselves inside of her at that. There was frustration, wanting to burst, to call him names and get him back in petty ways; but there was far more disappointment. A fragment of the father inside her, feeling so disappointed at her weakness. So many tries to stop her opponent and what was she now? Weak, like a girl. He had her name, he had manhandled her however he liked, and he had beat up her boyfriend. Miyu rubbed her wrist as more tears found their way into her eyes. She felt helpless, vulnerable, out on the street with none of her weapons- which proved useless as supplements for her strength in the first place- with none of her friends, and nothing left to hide behind. She fell on her knees again _**weak**_ and began truly sobbing, letting out the frustration over her weakness that had really been building up for as long as she could remember. Miyu cradled her healed wrist in her hand _**pathetic**_ and felt even weaker for using something as dangerous as darkness itself, for taking the advice of the one person she knew she never should have trusted. Miyu remembered the raven that had spoken and realized with a shrill terror that she was probably not out of danger yet. She turned around to face the bird and shrieked in surprise.

"How did you get here?"

Maleficent smiled warmly. "My child." She looked up at the raven in the tree, which flew to her shoulder obediently."There's no no need to worry about such trivial things. What is troubling you?"

Miyu gulped more tears down and resumed her breathing. "I... I don't trust y-"

Maleficent pressed a finger to Miyu's lips. "Now, now, daughter. Did those spells I gave you work?"

Miyu nodded, and gulped again, this time at the feeling of nausea that comes with self loathing.

"So why so sad? Hmm?"

Maleficent wrapped an arm around Miyu and held her to her bosom, swaying gently back and forth, comforting her. Miyu closed her eyes and whispered, "he broke my arm."

"Who did?"

Miyu sobbed into Maleficent's chest.

"I don't know."

"Is it alright now?"

Miyu nodded.

"Then he didn't really break your arm, Miyu. He only hurt you for a moment. Remember, 'sticks and stones.'"

"I don't care!"

Miyu pulled away from Maleficent's embrace angrily. "I don't just want to be pretty! I don't just want clothes and friends, and really really good goalie hands! I want to be strong! I want to be so strong that when boys try to hurt me, I can hurt them back!"

Maleficent shook her head "tsk, tsk, tsk. My daughter, you should know better than to bite off more than you can chew."

Miyu balled her fists defiantly and screamed, "Don't tell me I can't! I know I can! And stop calling me your daughter."

Miyu's legs fell out from under her in the final statement of exhaustion _**feeble**_ that they could make. She burst into tears again, this time far beyond her willpower to control, until her exhaustion had left her merely gasping for breath. Maleficent sighed. "You poor thing. You must be so exhausted." She lifted Miyu easily in one hand, with the unnatural strength that Miyu craved, and carried her home to sleep.

* * *

Riku opened his eyes groggily sat up. His head hurt, alot, but he quickly noted Miyu's absence so that didn't matter. The sun was rising over the ocean the way most nine-to-fivers lift their head just enough to hit the alarm, and Riku would have loved a snooze button, or a pain reliever; but yet again he was reminded of his duty when the swelling in his broken collar bone began to pinch a nerve. He held his jaw in one hand and wobbled around in what became a circle as he rose to his feet. His vision straightened then and he spotted a bicycle boy down the street heading his way.

"Small town murder! Get the morning edition! Headline news!"

Riku reached into his pocket and produced several pieces of munny, which he held aloft in exchange for a Daily Planet. He used an ice spell to create a nice chunk of the cold stuff, wrapped it in the paper, and set it on his shoulder, which hurt like it was being payed.

"Gee, mister. You look really beat up."

Riku nodded at the kid on the bicycle. "Yeah." He thought back to the night before, which caused him even more pain.

"Kid," Riku braced the ice pack between his swolen shoulder and his aching jaw so he could put his free arm on the youngster's shoulder.

"I'm twelve years old! I'm not a kid."

"Twelve-year-old, don't let your guard down for anything, not even girls."

The bicycle boy blinked. "So how do I get laid?"

Riku decided he was a lost cause. "Have you seen my girlfriend nearby?"

"Riku?!"

Riku and the bicycle boy turned to see Selphie coming down the street.

"Riku, how do you always get here so fast? You must get up really early or something! Where's Miyu? What's wrong with your shoulder? Oh no! Were you in a fight? You're not answering me. What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Riku patted the bicycle boy. "Buzz off."

Selphie watched him go before eying Riku's ice pack again.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"No. Someone attacked Miyu and I last nigh-"

Selphie gasped, cutting him off. "You were attacked? By who?"

"I don't know. But he won, and I woke up here... what?"

Selphie had gone wide eyed. "Haven't you read the newspaper? There's a killer on the loose!"

Riku sobered out of his morning daze abruptly. "Where is everyone? Sora, Kairi, Tidus, all them."

"I don't know. Sora's all beat up at home. Kairi might be there, too. Or are they at the hospital? Tidus and Wakka had a sleepover at one of their houses, or maybe at someone else's house. Is that helpful at all?"

Riku grimaced as his swollen shoulder reminded him of his broken collarbone, and limp arm.

"Do you have a cell phone?"

Selphie put her hands on her hips. "What do I look like to you, a Rockefeller?"

Riku swallowed his pain. "Where's the nearest place to buy a potion?"

Selphie looked around the town, which wouldn't open for business for another fifteen minutes.

"The hospital?"

Riku nodded. "Tell everyone you meet that Miyu is missing. I need to get fixed up, and hopefully find the gang."

* * *

Xehanort stepped out of a corridor of darkness and felt dirt beneath his feet. He was in a cave occupied only by himself, Master Xehanort, and a wooden door that was highly out of place.

"Riku is weak."

Master Xehanort nodded in agreement. "Have you heard the news?"

The younger Xehanort shook his head.

"Take a look for yourself."

The old sage tossed a newspaper to his apprentice as he turned to face him. Young Xehanort skimmed the front page in silence before nodding. "Right under our noses."

"Go to the hospital. Drop this on Sora's bed; I want him to read it."

"He can read?"

Master Xehanort glared disapprovingly at the slight. "Are you done with your testing?"

The Enigmatic Soldier shook his head. "Kairi."

* * *

**Please shred this in your review. I must learn from my mistakes. Oh! And I hope you're enjoying it too!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Oh yeah. I'm writing a story aren't I? I kept wondering why there was a folder called SRH on my desktop.**

**A quick review of the last chapter: Riku got beat up, Miyu got beat up (despite darkness, yes?), Maleficent showed up, Xehanort (OMG) has been sent to give the newspaper to Sora, Xehanort still has to "test" Kairi, and Michael Jackson died. Wow. Without further ado, I present Chapter 9.

* * *

**"Hey, aren't you that blitzer?"

"No."

"Yeah, from the Traverse To- ack!"

A body fell, unconscious, in the second floor hallway of Destiny Islands Medical Center. It was then stepped over by an annoyed young Xehanort. He didn't quite enjoy playing paperboy, not for anyone. He thought back to what he had read in Ansem's computer: He hadn't been killed by the last key bearers. It had taken him a while, but eventually he realized that the "talented young man" Ansem the Wise was referring was none other than himself. Xehanort took a look at his hands. He had grown up before, become a heartless, and something called a nobody, and then had been killed by this Sora child, which he was still finding hard to believe. The old man said the keybearers didn't fight well together, but he could be stubborn sometimes, and there was no way they had saved the world otherwise. Besides that, Master Xehanort said the same thing about the last three, and that had proved fatally wrong. Xehanort continued walking down the hallway, checking every room along the way for Sora. In the meantime, he tried to sort out the past in his head.

He remembered Master Xehanort's backup plan, spawning pods in the darkness, in case either of them had an untimely demise. But while his master died, he had lived on with apparent amnesia. It wasn't until Sora defeated his Heartless, Ansem Seeker of Darkness, and his Nobody, Xemnas, that he was truly dead. And therefore, he couldn't be revived by the pod, now, until after those criteria had been met. He was still young, he realized, because the pod had restored him exactly as it had remembered him. Something pink interrupted his thoughts.

* * *

Kairi rubbed her eyes and yawned. She liked mornings about as much as they liked her, but Sora was in the hospital, and her father wouldn't let her stay over night in a chair, so here she was. She entered the small two-story building and took every step up the stairs, one at a time. Her father had begun scolding her lately whenever she took steps that were too big. He said that it wasn't "ladylike." She sighed at the ridiculousness of it as she crossed over the top step onto the second level.

"Kairi?"

She raised her gaze from the floor, sighing again as she remembered that she wasn't supposed to do that either, and addressed the person at the end of the hall with her eyes. She still wasn't sure what that meant, but her etiquette instructor had told her that "men address people with nods, and ladies address people with their eyes." The boy she was looking at was completely unfamiliar to her, probably an obsessed fan, and he was standing next to a wheeled medicine cabinet. His hair was silver, but not obnoxiously so, and seemed naturally spiky, but still tame. Oddly enough, even the startling contrasts about him were seemingly normal. He was conservatively unique.

"Yes?"  
The boy grinned maliciously and addressed her with a nod. "I wonder if you could best your predecessor."

Tendrils of darkness sprang out behind him and latched onto his physique, twisting themselves and molding to his body in a coordinated show of horror until he was completely enveloped in a suit of darkness. A metal faceplate appeared last, seemingly from thin air, to remove the last thing that made him seem even remotely human. Kairi froze and stared in a very un-ladylike fashion, watching with dumbstruck boredom as Xehanort raised his Keyblade to prompt the beginning of a battle she certainly wouldn't win. She felt horribly tired, partly out of physical fatigue, but mostly at the annoyance that the stress of her adventures left her with so many vivid dreams. KAiri turned around and walked down the stairs, taking each step one at a time, so as to return to her bed, where she could finish sleeping. It occurred to her then that after she woke up, she would have to go through her whole morning routine all over again.

"Damn it!"

She jumped to the base of the stairs.

* * *

Xehanort lowered his keyblade in disbelief and checked to make sure that he looked fully menacing. Even considering the broad daylight, his aura made the wrong end of Oblivion look nice. But then again, the Princess of Heart had been there and back before. Despite her looks and age, she would have to be a killing machine after her last adventure. No fear factor could pose any threat to her if a morning assault was so mundane. Xehanort peeked into the next room in the hallway and spotted Sora sleeping on a white bed. He tossed the newspaper over the hero's face and sprinted after his prey.

* * *

Kairi heard footsteps behind her. The Heartless Whatever-It-Was was sprinting its pursuit in preparation for some horrible attack. She didn't care. She was tired of it, tired of being kidnapped, dragged into the darkness, never to return, tired of feeling Sora's fingers slip away from her over-and-over again, and tired of being tired. She pinched herself to no effect. The footsteps grew closer, but she refused to look, to satisfy whatever demented part of her spent all day thinking up new and horrible nightmares. She wouldn't - "Watch out!"

Kairi balked at the omnidirectional voice and felt a surge of adrenalin as a weight appeared in her hand. She spun in slow motion and raised her weapon to block what she now realized was a very real, very fast moving armored foe.

* * *

Xehanort thought back to his memories of Aqua. She was athletic, to say the least in her favor, and never appeared weak or unmenacing; she never looked fragile. Kairi was exactly that by appearance. He closed to within ten feet before she suddenly decided to draw and swivel, and his superior agility sealed the deal. Xehanort made a leap, teleported froward to bypass her block, and struck her in the gut. Kairi had enough time to almost double over before he teleported again and knocked her knees out from under her. By then she had given up, but a final blow came down like a hammer from the sky and sundered her nose. Liberated from its confines, a spurt of blood jumped from her face for a breath of air, and fell to the asphalt where it lay with its previous employer. Xehanort paced around Kairi in a semi-circle, waiting. After a moment, he nudged her with an impatient boot. She didn't move, or even groan the way Sora had. He kicked her ribs, again in futility. A feeling of dread came over him then, like he had knocked over a table in a china shop. Was she dead? He kneeled down and checked her pulse, only to discover it had stepped out for lunch. Xehanort could practically feel his master thwacking him already.

* * *

**"Stare not into the abyss, lest it stare into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche, as transcribed by Jimminy Crickett. **

Sora stared, drawn by the glorious swirl and crush of true oblivion. The End of All Worlds, a place that was an end in itself, an end to all things, and soon to be ended. He stepped out onto the water (which supported his weight without so much as a ripple) toward the beautiful end, the event horizon of all creation and all end, the spiral of death. It was so colossally far away as to be unreachable, and yet so immaculately gargantuan that it could be open to an outstretched hand. Its ebbs and swells consumed hundreds of worlds from the conveyor-like horizon every moment that Sora watched, crushing ancient histories and potential futures alike. Truly, all work had been in vanity; everything would end in darkness. Sora took another step, invited by the hypnotic beckoning of Death, and then another, and another, until finally he was sprinting at it, joining the pieces of land that marched onward to their final rest. He had to be with it, to merge, to end. But a voice came to him, a whisper, the phantom of a small buzz. He ignored it, but it grew in strength, amplified by urgency. He ran harder, feeling no burn or winded gasp in his chest, and was soon using all fours in an attempt to pull, and drag, and jump his way faster and faster to the gem of reality. But the voice grew stronger until finally it screamed in his mind "Destati!" He tripped at the sound of it, looked to the water, and saw his reflection; two gleaming, golden eyes gazed back.

Sora woke with a start on all fours. His hands pressed on broken tile, and his knee was bleeding, but that was the least of his worries. The hospital ward he had woken in was shredded. Something... something terrible had happened. The bed itself was gone, replaced by bits of metal and ripped fabric that had mixed with the scratched walls and Tangram floor pieces. A glass vase was bleeding its demise onto onto the window sill, and whatever had happened to the flowers, Sora didn't know.

Sora stood up, almost slipping on loose tiles, and popped his head out of the door. There was a body in the hallway, lying face down behind a rolling cabinet.

"It probably still has a heart."

He swiveled around to face the voice, spotting nothing out of the corner of his eye.

"Show yourself!"

Silence. Sora stepped out of the room cautiously, keeping a lookout on as many sides as he could, listening hard but only hearing himself and the heartbeat of the body.

"Pump, pump, pump," murmured the voice. Sora pivoted and summoned his keyblade, again meeting nothing. A coppery smell hit his nose, blood, and brought a rasping sniff with it. The voice in the room was taunting him from within, questioning his desires.

Sora ran out of the hallway, trying to rub it out of his head, and nearly toppled down the stairs sans sanity, but was saved by the sound of real voices on the ground floor.

"Uh, yeah. I just found her like that."

"Pulse?"

"I don't-"

Sora reached the last step just in time to see the receptionist from the front desk pour a potion down Kairi's throat. As the bottle moved away, Sora saw her face, and her off-kilter nose. Only a moment before, his head was filled with tumultuous voices taunting him, his own thoughts fighting back, and questions about what was happening. But no longer. Nothing took the stage, and shrieked over the microphone, a terrible and silent scream in his soul. Kairi blinked herself awake, and smiled broadly when she saw him, emphasizing her broken nose even more.

"Sora! What's-?"

The taste of blood hit her tongue and she ran a hand to her face.

"Someone attacked you," the blitzer supplied.

Sora turned his eyes away from Kairi to stare at the blitzer, and was struck with a memory.

* * *

"_Why don't you take that mask off? Afraid I'm gonna' scratch your face?"_

"_You already did."_

_Sora froze, accentuating the fact that he had been shifting his weight continually. The dark soldier laughed, again with a distorted voice. "And you didn't recognize me."

* * *

_

A hand pawed at Sora's cheek; his, he realized, as he stared at the perfectly smooth face of the person he had scratched only a morning ago.

"Is something wrong?"

_What an interesting question,_ Sora thought.

_I don't recognize you..._

Sora's eyes narrowed. "You found her that way?"

Kairi looked suspiciously at the blitzer, who was only a foot or so away from the rolling bed she had been placed on.

"Yeah. Somebody mugged her, I guess."

Kairi grabbed at air where her pack should have been.

In the most controlled manner he could, Sora raised a finger at whoever the blitzer was.

"You..." Nothing came to mind but a rush of blood, and the pounding of his heart in his head.

_You, you, you, you, _"You... found her that way?"

Xehanort nodded. "Of course."

"Sora, I may not be able to remember who attacked me, but I'm sure they wouldn't have taken me directly to the hospital afterward," Kairi added. "And besides, he's a blitzballer!"

A rational response to that would have been nice, but they don't grow on trees. Sora wasn't in a pondering mood anyway. He took a step forward, keeping perfectly balanced despite the numbness that was throughout his body.

"You did this." _I know you, you, you, you, you._

"I didn't do anything. I was-"

"Xehanort."

Xehanort dropped all the bullshit right on the floor and summoned a keyblade, but Sora didn't respond at first. Instead, the hero of light shook slightly, like a quartz statue with an electric current.

"You better kill me this time, Xehanort," he murmured. The hospital creaked with an unnatural change in temperature.

"Because I will not let this go."

"Then we're playing for keeps."

Xehanort grabbed at where Kairi's ankle had been, only to find an empty rolling bed. Sora lunged.

* * *

Several goths lounged around between the hospital and the cemetery on slow days, and by a bizarre coincidence, only the days whose names ended in "Y" were slow. Today was included. One of the goths took a drag on his cigarette, and gave another underage member of the group a melancholy look, which is to say that he merely looked at her in his usual fashion.

"Nice dress."

"I made it myself."

He nodded. "Cool."

The canopy of clouds overhead were dragged across the sky for several minutes that seemed to have more than sixty seconds each before anyone spoke again.

"So, do you guys think, like, there are any necromancers in town who could teach us... like... necromancy?"

Most of the goths shrugged.

"Help!"

They all glanced toward the front of the building, where Kairi was screaming her need of assistance.

"Oh look," one of them chided. "It's _The Princess._"

Kairi heard their voices and came around the side of the building in a frantic sprint.

"Please! Please, you guys have to help; there's a guy in there-"

The girl whose dress had sparked the overly gracious comments from her otherwise silent peers held up a hand.

"_We_ have to help _you?_"

Kairi balked at the combination of purple lipstick and black leather. It didn't occur to her that Lulu was simultaneously cringing at the combination of pink and pink.

Kairi tried to continue, "But-"

"We aren't friends, remember? You punched me in freshmen year."

Kairi gave a frustrated sigh. "Time heals all wounds?"

"No." Lulu folded her arms across her chest, a slight that Kairi ignored.

"You're just jealous that you can't get a boyfriend! Status doesn't matter!"

"Well it did when when I wanted to go to your birthday! I spent quite alot of time finding your gift, you know."

"I-"

"And what was it you said to me at the door?"

Kairi took a step back, pushed by Lulu's presence.

"I'm sorry, Lulu. But please-"

"We can't be friends, Kairi. You're _different_."

Kairi stomped her foot, and Lulu stuck out her tongue in response.

* * *

Xehanort stumbled backwards out of the front doors of Destiny Island hospital without a chunk of his faceplate. He tripped on the way and turned his fall into a roll, summoning the keyblade he had dropped just in time to block the next flurry of scythe-like scratches.

"It's a lot easier to hit a girl, isn't it?!"

Whatever thing Sora had transmuted himself into was taking Kairi's temporary broken nose to heart. It planted itself on the ground so firmly it could have hung from a roof, and then seemed to do a Power Clean that pulled even more darkness from the ground. Xehanort went on the offensive as quickly as possible by getting his weight forward, but Sora's claws formed an impassable wall .

* * *

"I'll invite you to my next birthday! Is that what this is about?"

"Why would I want to go to your birthday?"

"It's not so fun when you're the one getting broken, is it?! IS IT?!"

Their eyes raked the corner of the building, around which Sora was making a racket of his vengeance. Kairi snorted, stamping her foot at Lulu. "Fine. I wont forget this."

She turned and ran to Sora's aid Just as Xehanort got enough footing and brains to blow up the cobblestone behind himself and use an aero spell to turn it into a vortex of bricks that brutalized Sora while it sent him back through the front doors, out of her sight. Kairi thought of the first spell that came to mind and screamed, "Water!" as retaliation.

The minor dousing Xehanort received was nothing compared to the headache she incurred. He brushed some liquid off of his shoulder and tossed an unimpressed look in her direction. "Really?"

"Thundagun!"

Zeus let one loose, sending Xehanort flying like a spasmodic rag doll. KAiri turned to gawk at Lulu, who flicked some excess lightning off her fingers and struck a pose. "Don't look so shocked."

Xehanort growled and summoned a portal in time for Sora to step out of the rubble that had replaced the front doors to the hospital. He had taken on his usual form, sans sanity.

"I'd say you can run, Xehanort, but you can't run fast enough."

He raised a finger that drew a picture of his mental stability in the air. "You can't run far enough, or high enough! I slay dragons; I can sure as hell make you pay back every-"

Xehanort slipped backwards into the corridors of darkness disinterestedly. His master's lecture would be enough.

* * *

Selphie nodded her thanks to the shop owner. She needed all the help she could get if she was going to find Miyu. She pivoted on her toes and met someone's stomach.

"Oh! Misses... er... are you alright?"

"No."

Miyu's mother brushed past her and walked to the sales counter, where she set down exact change and demanded a cell phone. Selphie stared in wonder at the largest pile of Munny she'd ever seen.

"Woooooooooooooooow. I didn't know you guys were so rich!"

"Anything for my daughter," she responded in a hollow voice.

Selphie eyed her suspiciously. "You don't seem well, Mrs.-" she coughed to cover the last word. She had forgotten Miyu's last name completely.

"Someone jinxed me."

Selphie went wide eyed. "What? Really? Who was it? It wasn't the murderer, was it? Did you h-"

"I can't say who did it, Selphie."

She gathered up the cellular phone and the papers associated with it before about facing and listlessly marching her way back home. Selphie followed in an awkwardly unmatched pace that she had to constantly adjust. "You can't tell? Can you give me a clue?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"That's the whole point of a Jinx, Selphie."

"Well, what should I do?"

"Find help, Selphie."

Selphie stopped as it dawned on her that she was part of something big, potentially the size of one of Sora's not as well known adventures. She caught up for one last question.

"But, will you be okay?"

"Find help."

"Don't worry. I'll get Sora and tell him everything. Hang in there!"

She turned to run for the hospital and bounced off of someone who'd been standing behind her.

"Oh! I'm sorry."

A knife flashed.

* * *

Miyu stared at the newspaper Tidus had delivered to her doorstep. "Small Town Murder," she mumbled under her breath. The picture was of two smartly dressed gentleman on vacation from work as detectives in England, along with local police, standing over something that censors had deemed bad enough to crop out. She skimmed the article with interest while she walked inside, but eventually found she could read no further. She dropped it onto the kitchen counter where, as fate would have it, the draft it made lifted a note her mother had written, sending it into her hand.

"Store," inscribed in anonymous print, was all the information it entailed.

Miyu found her way to a small piece solace on the couch, but her fickle nature sent her from there out the door. Fresh air was about to be in short supply for her. She took one less pocketknife with than usual, reminding her yet again of the fate her newspaper had just consigned her to. "Authorities say the victim's throat, stomach, and Achilles tendons were slashed with a pocketknife. The weapon appears to have initials engraved into it. 'It's elementary, really,' added Sherlock Holmes, a private investigator from England. 'All that' really in it is finding the owner of the knife.'"


	10. Chapter 10

**"You want us to shred this? Well, the only thing i don't like that much is Miyu. She is way too much of a sue." - The Super Banana, as transcribed by Jimminy Cricket.**

**Lol. But seriously. Wise words. Hopefully this chapter shakes that up. Also, I said some answers would blow your mind like a counter-culture hoover. I hope this chapter accomplishes that as well.**

**So,**

**

* * *

"Cut out the rot... before it spreads."** **- Master Xehanort, as Transcribed by Jimminy Cricket. **

An average morning in Destiny Islands has three distinguishing features. The first distinguishing feature is an ocean breeze, the harbinger of a marine layer that hides softly chirping birds. The second distinguishing feature is the tide that brings bottled messages from every ocean on every world. The vast majority of messages are suicide letters or desperate pleas from orphans and kidnapped children, however, so the town has taken to destroying them before they are read and telling the children that they are just litter. The third distinctive feature is that someone, somewhere is playing a game of blitzball. But today is not an average day for the Destiny Islands, so today there are a total of four distinctive features. The fourth is the important one to us because it explains why the hospital has been so heavily damaged by a storm of bricks, it explains why the most popular debutant in town is weeping in the streets, it explains why Selphie Tilmitt is leaving a trail of blood while she drags herself from closed store to closed store, and it explains why Riku is shambling through the bird-hiding mist toward his friends Sora and Kairi at the hospital. The fourth, and possibly most distinctive, feature is this: there's a killer on the lose, and no one knows who it is.

* * *

Sora got an A on his patience test for once, as he had spent a full two minutes waiting for Riku to reach him without running to make up the distance. The trio (and Lulu) traded hellos and got straight down to business.

"Your shoulder's swollen."

"There's something on your head."

Sora rummaged through his hair curiously while Lulu stared daggers at his stupidity and Kairi giggled impassively. If this kept up, they'd have a quartet, but black dresses made of belts didn't socialize with pink mini-skirts, so Lulu quickly excused herself and returned to her place with the goths. Her absence wasn't noticed.

Riku traded his ice pack for a potion they found in the entryway, and took a seat against an undamaged wall while his wounds sealed.

"So." He gestured at the cobblestones and bricks that had been somehow involved in the destruction of the hospital's entryway. "I missed some party, huh?"

Sora nodded. "We have to kill someone."

Kairi and Riku did a double-take, but Sora nodded again. "The sooner the better."

Riku held up a hand. "First we have to find someone. Miyu and I were attacked last night and she's gone missing."

"What did he look like?"

Riku shook his head. "He had armor on. Red and black."

Sora and Kairi nodded. "So where do we look?"

"You could kick down her front door again."

Riku jumped to his feet and the trio formed a phalanx of keyblades against what was unmistakably a really old Xehanort. He paused in the remains of the doorway mid-step.

"Or perhaps you could take a look at the local newspaper. Sora?"

Sora lowered his keyblade, much to Riku and Kairi's surprise. "Uh... I don't have one."

Kairi nudged him. "Hey." She gestured at Master Xehanort.

"Oh! No, it's okay, guys. He's not Xehanort."

Riku shook his head. "No. That's Xehanort."

"But it isn't!" He gestured at the old man. "Tell them."

"I am not Xehanort."

"See?"

Kairi sighed. "Really, Sora?"

Sora gestured at the sage again. "Come on! Tell them for real."

Master Xehanort considered it for a moment before turning to Kairi. "When David wanted to prove to King Saul that he meant no harm..."

He lifted his hand, and opened it to reveal a necklace with a small paopu on it. Kairi gave it an inquisitive look while Riku balked.

"Miyu gave me that."

"Oh, it's yours? My mistake."

He tossed it to Riku and produced an earring, which he tossed to Kairi. She recognized it as her own instantly.

"Sora." The Sage nodded towards the newspaper that Riku had used as an impromptu ice pack, and Sora retrieved it from the floor quickly. He read aloud, skipping parts he deemed uninteresting.

"Small Town Murder. On an average afternoon... Families sit down to dinner... blah... blah, blah, but little did they know that they were only a few feet away from what authorities call the grisliest crime since the Heartless destroyed the entire world... It seems that a scuffle that occurred only minutes before had served as a distraction for someone to assault the victim, whose remains are as of yet unidentifiable due to the brutality of the attack... He was found by authorities in the men's room with his munny pouch, but no identification. Blah... blah, blah, inspector Sherlock Holmes, blah." Sora turned to another page awkwardly, due to the kite-like pages that newspapers always have, and continued reading.

"Tensions flew high this morning among authorities as the sheriff attempted to receive warrants of arrest for local heroes Kairi and Sora, and for several friends, Miyu, and Selphie, all of whom were present at the restaurant in question. The Daily Planet holds to the highest standards of journalism, so their last names have been withheld, along with the name of the restaurant, for the sake of privacy."

He continued scanning the paper while Riku and Kairi awkwardly shifted their defensive stances.

"Oh. OH!"

He turned the paper around and showed them a picture of the murder weapon, a bloodied pocketknife with Miyu's initials carved into the handle.

* * *

**"Fear can be headier than whiskey, once man has acquired a taste for it." ~Donald Dowes, as transcribed by Jimminy Cricket.**

An average morning in Destiny Islands has three distinguishing features. The first distinguishing feature is an ocean breeze, the harbinger of a marine layer that hides softly chirping birds. But again, this was no average morning. Today the mist hid a raven that kept as quiet as possible. It shimmied to its right several feet every now and then, and would sometimes be forced to jump to the next building in order to keep up with the person it was tracking. But for the most part it only needed to stand in one place. Miyu wasn't exactly behaving normally. Sometimes she would take three whole steps uninterrupted, but she would immediately sink to her knees and shake out her tears onto the ground as quietly as she knew how and mutter, "it wasn't me. It wasn't, no. Please, who was it? Who has my pocket knives? Was it Riku? No. I can't..." and then she would whimper as she regained control, stand to her feet, and take several more steps before repeating the process. "No. No, it can't be Riku. It has to be Kairi. No, she wasn't there. Was she? She was with Selphie. I don't want to go to jail. No. Maleficent. Maleficent?"

She looked about herself fearfully, but saw no one, and so continued on down the street that way until she reached a pool of blood. It wasn't the kind that prompted swimming or diving, but retching and more tears came to mind. Miyu turned and scurried to the side of the road where she embarrassed herself, and became even sicker at the thought of someone seeing her that way. Her erratic and unexpected behavior was beginning to wear on Diablo. It was odd to him that she slept with a light on, but now she was jumping at mist, and he was unamused.

The fog billowed in denser, reducing visibility to several feet and forcing Diablo to sit still and listen to the wretched sounds that Miyu was making on the street below. Perhaps it was claustrophobia, or only adrenaline leaving her blood, but the shaking in her sobs was harder. Diablo stepped closer to the edge and peered down as far as he could see, accidentally knocking some crumbs off of the roof. Miyu's voice seized up in her throat for a second before she screamed, "Hello?"

Diablo cawed at her, and shifted his feet in an annoyed fashion when she responded by taking to her feet blindly and slipping on the pooled blood that she hadn't seen in the fog. He heard her get up again and disturb some trash cans farther down the street before turning into an alleyway.

* * *

An average morning in Destiny Islands has three distinguishing features. The third distinctive feature is that someone, somewhere is playing a game of blitzball. But today is not average, so Tidus, Wakka, Jassu, Letty, Botta, and Keepa found themselves sitting in a circle on the field.

Botta shook his head. "Sorry, Keepa, but it's a lot harder trying to score on Miyu."

There was a pause while everyone analyzed the "that's what she said" potential, but the conversation resumed when none was found.

"Yeah," Tidus nodded. "Not much fun in a team sport when the whole team's not here. Where are they, anyway?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Man, this is a downer, ya? I got some homework to do."

The team nodded. It wasn't a great day for blitzball anyway. Tidus spotted a payphone and rummaged in his pocket quickly. "Anybody got ten munny I can borrow? I'll call her really quick."

Letty tossed him some and he dashed off . After a minute or so, he shook his head, and they all got up to leave.

* * *

Miyu stopped behind a dumpster and put her back to the corner it made with the alley wall.

"No. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. It wasn't-"

A flapping noise followed her across the street, and she heard soft footsteps on a rooftop through the all-concealing fog. She edged to the corner of the dumpster and peeked around to get a look, but The fog remained as absolute as before, and the shapes it held danced around in a coordinated ballet for her terror to feed on. She pressed her back against the wall again. They wouldn't arrest her. It obviously wasn't her, right? Of course. But it was her knife. Miyu jammed her eyes shut and put prisons out of her mind. So what would she do now that she wanted? She couldn't go home, and everyone in town knew her, so she had to escape. She peeked around the dumpster again at the fog, which had receded enough to see across the street. She decided to face fear and step out into the middle of it, only for a short test. She made several jerky moves to get out of her alleyway, and then half crouched near a wall while she watched the shapes of the mist taunt her. They're just illusions, she told herself.

_Just tricks of the light._

She moved farther away from the wall, several steps or so, and hugged herself tight as she made the final moves away from safety. A soft whisper of wind blew at her back, mumbling threats into her ear, and she jerked around to face it. Of course, nothing was there. Her imagination was merely taking a leisurely stroll through the horror section of a library. But just at the edge of her vision, twenty or so feet up the road, she could plainly see the blade of a pocketknife twirling in the air, catching the light and throwing it back. Miyu took a step back, away from the wind, and looked down at where her shoe had landed with a squish. She had found the blood trail again, heading in the direction she had planned on running. Miyu looked back into the alley she had come from, a dead end, and wondered if it wasn't too late to hide behind the dumpster. But the wind whispered again, and her heart leaped up and grabbed her throat for support. She took another step along the blood trail, and the illusion of the knife followed her a step. She turned and ran.

* * *

Selphie Tilmitt stopped dragging herself long enough to listen to the sound of footsteps. "Hello?"

Miyu stopped running and shrieked at her. Selphie smiled apologetically. "Not much to look at, I know."

She held a hand over the knife in her side. "Somebody stabbed me. Do you have a potion?"

Miyu looked over her shoulder, and then put her back to the nearest wall while she shook her head. "Selphie, did you see who it was?"

Selphie adjusted her weight for a moment and cringed.

"No? I mean, I bumped into him... or her."

Miyu crouched down to the ground and hugged her legs. It was then that Selphie saw the blood on Miyu's shoes. "Sorry I made such a mess." She was almost making a joke of her own predicament, trying to lighten the mood, but Miyu was too busy in her world of fears to care. Images of a small room with a mirror, and two policemen caressed her mind.

"Your knife's in a dead guy, your friend's blood is all over your shoes, and _everyone knows you're afraid of the dark._"

Miyu shook the images loose.

"Selphie, you didn't see them at all?"

"No. I... I saw your mom. Are you gonna help me up or what? I mean, come on. I've got a knife in my kidney."

Miyu looked at Selphie, then at the knife in her side. Maybe her fears got the best of her again, or maybe she remembered she left the oven on, but either way, she was on her feet and running for her life as soon as she saw the pocket knife. Selphie's heart twitched, surprised at the abandonment, and hardened. The rot spread.

* * *

The second distinguishing feature is the tide that brings bottled messages from every ocean on every world. The vast majority of them are suicide letters or desperate pleas from orphans and kidnapped children, however, so the town has taken to destroying them before they are read and telling the children that they are just litter. But yet again, today was not average. Today, a bottle arrived on a nearby islet, carrying a letter from the king of Disney Castle. It read,

_Heard there's trouble. Coming soon._

_Hopefully, King Mickey  
_

Xehanort folded it up and tucked it into his pocket.


	11. Chapter 11

**"If you're gonna' go to hell, grease the slide." -Unknown, as transcribed by Jiminy Cricket.

* * *

**

"But..."

Riku shifted his eyes from Xehanort to the newspaper Sora was holding.

"That's Miyu's."

Kairi blinked awkwardly. "So somebody took it. I was with her the whole time. I mean... she was only out of our sights for a minute or so when... she... went to the bathroom."

Kairi's face dropped to concern.

Master Xehanort hadn't moved since he had been so rudely accosted, but now he looked for Riku's response.

"It wasn't her. Why would Miyu murder someone?"

Sora turned the newspaper around to continue reading.

"It says here the victim was stabbed in the kidneys repeatedly, and that there were a total of almost a hundred injuries. Oh!. The killer left a note on the body. 'that's what she said,' written by a right handed girl. How do they know that?"

Master Xehanort smiled grimly while Kairi adjusted her feet and lowered her keyblade.

"Riku?" she said in a small voice.

He nodded, but didn't shift his stance toward the old man while Kairi continued.

"I think... Miyu... she didn't like that guy, a lot."

Master Xehanort added, "Death by a Thousand Cuts is rather time intensive."

The trio eyed him suspiciously and Kairi and Riku raised their weapons again. "We still don't trust you."

With a nod to Sora, he replied, "but now you're listening." He looked around the hospital with interest while they watched him, and then asked, "out of curiosity, what happened here?"

Kairi felt her nose, which had finished healing perfectly.

"Oh. Um, someone attacked me and we drove him away."

The old man raised an eyebrow. "Did you now?"

She nodded, and he harumphed in response. "So. It seems that the search for our killer is the same as the search for our friend."

Riku pointed the keyblade offensively. "She's not your friend."

"True. She's Maleficent's."

Riku took a step forward. "Take that back!"

"Prove me wrong."

The old man stepped outside and disappeared, leaving them with no real option but to do exactly that. Sora looked between his friends with a meek grin. "Alright then, guys. Ready to go find Miyu?"

The incredulous glare they gave him answered pretty well.

"You trust him?!"

Sora's smile faded. "Yeah."

"Why?"

Sora checked his pockets for an answer, and then his shoelaces. "Uh... I just do. Y'know?"

The two closest people to him in the world sighed unsympathetically.

"No. Guys really! I do."

Riku shook his head. "Well we don't have much of a choice anyway. We can sort out who the real bad guy is and get to the bottom of this later."

Kairi nodded and turned a look to Sora he hadn't seen since the time he decided to jump out of a Paopu tree and land in a bush, which had thorns.

"Don't make anymore friends without talking to us, okay?"

Sora gaped at her. "But-!"

Riku gestured for the door with his head and cut him off. "Let's go."

* * *

A cocky young blitzer has little else to do but blitz and talk about blitzing. On the rare occasions that a blitzer leads a double life as the apprentice of a man bent on dominating Kingdom Hearts, he has even less time. So when duty stops calling, young Xehanort's feet drag him straight into town, where, hopefully, thousands of teenage girls will be waiting for him. But only two were in the town this early. One was bathing in her own blood, and the other was running for her life. Xehanort had the luck of meeting Miyu when they rounded the same corner, and karma decided that her forehead should meet his nose. She toppled over him and landed on top, although easily supported in his arms, and froze.

"Ow. Um..."

Xehanort froze too as soon as he got a look at her. "You?"

Miyu felt her nose as she stared at his and mumbled, "me?"

Xehanort shook his head, remembering that she couldn't recognize him through a mask. "You... my nose." Which was true.

She scrambled off of him and apologized while he stood to his feet, but he didn't seem to notice. Miyu hadn't realized it yet, but her fear had been shaken loose by shock, along with her hair, which played with the fog timidly. The boy she'd bumped into was distracting her from all those things easily. He was just standing there, holding his nose, and looking for all the world like a gentleman with a secret. Her eyes crawled over his silver-white hair and dove into his hazel orbs, trying to discern the meaning their thoughtful stare into nothingness while he muttered a curative spell. If her vantage had been ours, she might have kept running.

His thoughts were of exactly what he should do now that he had bumped into the Witch's apprentice. He could kill her right here, or he could have fun like he'd planned and let Master Xehanort lead the keybearers to kill her, or he could walk away and spend his time staring at a wall. Xehanort shifted his gaze to Miyu, who was staring back. He wouldn't be walking away. He knew that instantly. So he sorted his thoughts into three plausible futures and gave them names. They were as follows.

1) "Deja vu" Kill Miyu now, or let Master Xehanort feed her to the keybearers. When the time comes for Sora, Riku, and Kairi to battle the forces of darkness, they win yet again and possibly even finish the job entirely.

2) "Subterfuge" the Witch destroys the pods in the darkness, which she may have already done, and then picks off Master Xehanort before asking for an oath of fealty from me. I pretend that I have no choice and later slit her throat with the assistance of some new friends. In hindsight, not unlike what I apparently did to Ansem. Yet again, three underdogs come from nowhere and make a point of destroying darkness.

3) "Wildcard" Miyu, the Witch, and I kill Master Xehanort together, then kill the keybearers together. Then Miyu and I kill the Witch, and then I kill Miyu. And somewhere along the way, the King of Disney Castle is killed as well, leaving no one but me.

Xehanort grinned like a true bad boy and extended a hand to Miyu, but added in a twist by kissing her hand rather than shaking it. "Don't worry about my nose. I should have looked where I was going. My name is Xehanort."

Miyu smiled. "Miyu."

"You were running pretty fast, Miyu. Something chasing you?"

She looked behind her with mild worry, and slight embarrassment. She couldn't just tell the new, cute boy that she was running for her life from mist and had abandoned her friend to die, could she? Of course not. And someone would find Selphie in due time anyway. But how could she tell the truth without sounding un-cool?

Miyu finished chewing on her lip and said, "I'm a fugitive."

It has never been entirely clear when Xehanort truly became a heartless, because he never used his heart while he had it. His overly sociopathic tendencies had allowed it to be neglected in favor of butchering people. But nonetheless, "I'm a fugitive" was the opening measure of a ballad on the cobwebs where normal people had heartstrings. He grinned uncontrollably.

"Well, 'if you're going to hell, you might as well grease the slide.' Mind if I run with you?"

Miyu took a step closer to him so they were almost touching. "Where do you think we should go?"

"I'm pretty sure there's an islet off shore without any cops on it."

Miyu smiled and grabbed his hand tighter. "Lead the way, Xehanort."

* * *

Selphie didn't know much about how her body worked, but she figured that as long as she was swallowing the blood rather than letting it pour out of her mouth, that it counted as being "inside." She hadn't considered the ill effects of drinking her own blood, and was now learning to never do it again all over Maleficent's feet. The Witch didn't seem to mind, however. Putrescence was one of Evil's many friends. She patted a hand on Selphie's back and whispered soothing words that were drowned in retching until their curative effect took over. When she was well enough to shudder and lean against the wall in exhaustion, she mumbled a simple "thank you" to Maleficent, and closed her eyes. The Witch lifted her up and rocked her gently as she strode through a corridor of darkness.

* * *

The sun was just finished with its morning wake-up routine, and it had already missed everything.


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm sure you're wondering why this is so late. 15 units is part of the reason.**

**Recap: Maleficent saves Selphie from bleeding to death, SRK head out to find Miyu, Miyu and Xehanort elope to the islet.**

* * *

**"Lust knows not where Necessity ends." - Benjamin Franklin, as transcribed by Jimminy Cricket.**

* * *

Miyu accepted Xehanort's hand and stepped out of the boat they'd taken to the islet. Her foot pretended to slip as it graced the dock, but Xehanort wasn't about to let her realize that he was in complete control. He caught and lifted her easily.

"Oh! Thank you."

"Of course."

He set her down without copping a feel, a first.

"No cops here?"

"None."

"Not one?"

"Not even half of one."

She smiled, and the sun, no longer stopped by mist, bounced off her pearly whites with pleasure to dance in the open air -rather seductively, Xehanort thought.

"Do you like secrets, Miyu?"

She nodded.

"Do you like _big_ secrets?"

Her curiosity peeked its head out from under its disguise.

"What kind of secret are you talking about?"

With a gesture to the nearest cave, he answered, "the kind that sits right under everyone's nose."

He took her hand again and led her to the mouth of the Secret Spot, which was about as secret and "under everyone's noses" as lips. She licked hers anyway, faking anticipation of something juicy. Xehanort already knew how he was going to play it. He'd show her the door, talk about it, caress her hands the whole time, stay close, and make an ally that would drink blood with him until they were the only two left standing. All he needed was an hour at most. He wanted two at least. Want. Logic makes enemies, enemies, but lust doesn't make room for dissent. They were as friendly as they needed to be to get what they both wanted. Teenagers in the privacy of a cave don't fascinate themselves with handle less doors.

By the time the crawlspace they were in became the cave itself, any chance he thought he had of "bonding" was gone. Miyu was barely holding herself together.

"H-hey it's kind of dark in here, right? Right? Do you have a flashlight?"

Xehanort summoned a flame to his hand, revealing just how close in the walls were. Miyu shrank back a step, right into his chest. _So that's what hope feels like. _He wrapped an arm around her.

"You don't have to be afraid, Miyu."

She gulped. "I'm not afraid of anything."

"Are you afraid of me?"

"I-"

She cut herself short, reassured that their cave was empty, and feeling closer to Xehanort than the walls around them. She didn't need to lie anymore. She felt safe. She turned in his half hug to face him, and Xehanort dimmed the light in his hand until it was gone, and pressed his lips to hers.

"Children should not do such things."

Miyu seized up, petrified in the dark while Xehanort re-lit the fire in his palm. Maleficent was a foot away from them at most, making a sandwich out of Miyu. She eyed him with disgust.

"Who is this, Miyu?"

Awkward moments have a way of ruining things. Miyu struggled to answer through hyperventilation.

"X-X..."

Her breathing turned into a ragged, disorganized jumble, and the claustrophobia got the best of her. She passed out between them.

"Rhetoric has a way of debilitating people sometimes, wouldn't you say, Xehanort?"

A foot apart, at most. Striking distance. The flame died abruptly. Staff and Keyblade clashed. Lightning in the dark.

* * *

"What are we doing here?"

Kairi shushed Sora and followed Riku through a side entrance into the restaurant.

"Clues, Sora. We need to know who really killed this guy."

They sneaked their way through the tables, and stopped at the door to the men's room. The restaurant wouldn't open until the investigation had closed, so it was empty. But somehow, restrooms made a place feel public. Riku held up a hand and they all stopped just short of the door.

"Do you hear that?" He whispered.

They listened, and all turned their heads to the other door. Riku creaked it open slightly, and they listened some more to two gentlemen from England.

"I still don't understand what we're doing here, Holmes. You said we just need to find the owner of the knife."

"I lied, Watson. Take a look at these stalls."

"I'm looking at them. How is it that we know the killer is a girl again?"

"The handwriting, Watson. It's elementary, really. Once you have a knack for it of course. A... ha."

"What?"

"Aha."

The trio leaned in closer to the door as they heard the other two move in closer to something.

"Right there, Watson. Right there. That is how our female assailant managed to do it. Hmm. What remains of course is which one it was."

The sound of pacing and puffing drifted to them.

"A highly disturbed young woman. PTSD, perhaps. Have you heard of it, Watson?"

"People come back from The War with it, yes."

"Kairi had herself an adventure, didn't she? Hmm."

"Who?"

"The mayor's daughter. Weren't you paying attention?"

More pacing. More puffing.

"Let's find out who our victim is next, classes, friends, enemies, etcetera. I would much love to establish a motive."

Two footsteps moved toward the door and the trio dived into the men's room. The two men stopped in the hallway. No one breathed.

"It seems as though we're being observed, Sherlock."

"Come now, Watson. If those three didn't have noses for trouble, they wouldn't be famous in the first place."

With that, the two exited, leaving the keybearers in awe.

* * *

Xehanort backpedalled out of a portal onto the dark shore of a Destiny Islands in repose, dragging Miyu with him and blocking spells with his weapon as fast as he could. The odd thought struck him that the waves sounded the same here. He shook it clear as the devil herself followed him through his own portal. He jumped into another, trying to lose her in a darker place, stepping ever closer to oblivion in an attempt to hug the shadows. It was a dangerous game for anyone. Like playing chicken against God, it was more a test of attrition than victory. He dived into the world terminus and looked for the nearest beam of light he could. The shadows around him animated and lit up their golden eyes. Claws flashed. He fought off several heartless that tried to wrest Miyu from his grip. Maleficent was on him again in a flash of lightning that he dodged. There wasn't time to reflect on his luck before he was forced to block the next strike and backpedal into a world that never existed. He ran into an alleyway and hopped through another portal of his making into a rice patty. Several oriental women stopped their hunched work to marvel at his appearance while he pulled Miyu to the surface and squelched forward several feet and into another portal. He continued on a frantic run, trying for all the world to not let the witch catch up, spawning portals to as many varied locations as he could, linking them to each other, opening multiples, doubling back, turning corners, and finally dropping into the last place he could possibly think of.

* * *

Riku poked his head out of the bathroom. Sora's head appeared above his, and Kairi came third.

"It looks clear."

They filed out and keened their eyes for movement among the tables. They wanted to make sure the detectives were gone before they left. Light was shining in from outside in considerable amounts now, as the sun had risen above the horizon to see what was going on. Dust curled in the air near the windows and vanished in the shade around it, caught in drafts of wind too low to feel. A portal opened and Xehanort popped out, knocking over some tables in the process. One hand was wielding a keyblade while the other was dragging an unconscious Miyu. He froze when he saw the trio.

"You can't possibly make a judgment based on what little you-"

Sora and Riku lunged with their bare hands while Kairi cloaked them in aero spells. Two swift blocks and a roll put Xehanort out of harm's way just as Maleficent appeared, lightning blazing from her staff. Riku summoned a shield to guard Kairi, and Sora walloped the witch's gut. She reeled, sending Xehanort's strike at her head over her to land on a table that overturned and blocked out Riku and Kairi. Maleficent made a broad swipe with her staff while she mumbled a contact spell, forcing Xehanort down on his back and Sora down on his face. Xehanort threw his legs back over his head and then forward, tossing his weight at the witch, while Sora jumped at her knees. She vanished and reappeared in a corner, leaving the two to land on each other. Riku was on her from nowhere, and struck the gem of her staff with his blade. She screamed and knocked him away with a swipe of her hand. Xehanort deflected a water spell from Kairi to Sora and grabbed Miyu's collar to drag her clear of the melee. Sora tackled him over a table and slammed a fist into his faceplate. Lightning struck him in the back and Xehanort elbowed him off easily before shoving Miyu under the table. He took a look around.

Riku was on Maleficent again, postponing her next assault from the corner. Sora was spread eagle at his feet and wouldn't get up for several more seconds. Kairi was loosing a fire spell at him. He dodged it, teleported, and rammed her against the wall with his shoulder. She wouldn't be getting up this time. Sora tackled him against the same wall and they fell through into the bathroom. Claws swiped at Xehanort's faceplate now. He readied a cure spell for Miyu. He'd need help.

Riku took a staff to the cheek and countered with a wind spell that bounced Maleficent around in her corner, softening the target for a kick. She vanished before it hit, and appeared in another corner. Riku dodged another lightning spell on his way to her and lunged at the gem on her staff. She dropped it, grabbed his throat with both hands, and lifted him off the ground.

"Fool! You think my power comes from a staff?"

He kicked her in the face and tried to knee her elbow with bad leverage. She dropped him, incredulous, and gaped at a pocket knife in her arm.

"Wha-"

Sora's raging on the other side of the room drowned her out, and cloaked Miyu's scream. Miyu was coming down from a jump, another knife in both hands. Maleficent was just fast enough to shriek before it dove into her heart. A black ooze spurted out into Miyu's eyes and she rolled away, screaming in pain while Maleficent cackled.

Xehanort had managed to roll face-up under his opponent, which had only allowed Sora's claws to find grooves and rip off his faceplate.

"Look at me," he growled.

Xehanort tried to jerk free. Sora grabbed his head and held him there.

"Look at me!"

Xehanort was looking. Darkness dropped from Sora in spools that wormed away and evanesced. His hands were only holsters for claws that dug into his temples, and the ever-present spiky hair was a shifting, muted mass. But Sora didn't mean for his enemy to check out his locks, or comment on his nails, or even shiver at the chains and zippers that shook freely in dark grey mono-colors from his clothes. He wanted Xehanort to look into his bulging, golden eyes, the only features left on his face. Sora pressed their foreheads together, just so they'd be clear.

"You brought this on yourself."

Sora dove his head for the heart and opened a new mouth. It's teeth were only for tasting blood and chewing hearts. Miyu collapsed into him at the last moment, writhing and screaming and freeing Xehanort.

Maleficent tore the blade from her body, laughing with a mixture of rage, betrayal, and the glee of obvious supremacy. Riku moved in for the kill, now or never, trying to throw all of his weight behind the keyblade as he drove it into her heart. Something wrapped around his neck and jerked hard, spinning him over backward into some chairs. Selphie's whip released and cut his cheek deep in a second. Lightning followed right after. He saw Miyu on the other side of the room, which had been expanded by the inclusion of the bathroom. She was fighting Xehanort and a shadow, swinging her arms blindly. Kairi was on the floor by her. Where was Sora? Another lash tore his back. He grabbed for a potion he'd snatched from the hospital and tossed it across the room to Kairi. More lightning struck him down. They were in trouble.

Sora reached for the nearest heart he could find and slashed hard. Miyu cried out. He slashed at another, which blocked.

"You're just delaying the inevitable, Xehanort!"

Sora jumped onto the white roof of the restroom, ignoring petty laws like gravity, and swiped from directly overhead. Xehanort backpedalled to get a better angle and slipped on water that Kairi had summoned on instinct. Sora hopped down and crushed Xehanort feet-first before dropping to all fours on him. Sora's mouth opened again and his lifetime nemesis pressed his hands into his face. It was a desperate gesture, reserved for panic. Sora pressed down, gravity on his side now, teeth grinding inches from their target. "Sometimes I wonder if you were even born with a heart. Guess I'll find out."

Kairi forced a potion on Miyu and wiped away the last of Maleficent's blood. Miyu returned the favor with a dagger and a shriek of "I don't need your help!"

Riku caught Selphie's whip on his arm and tugged it out of her hands. She had always been lacking in the subtler tactics of fighting. What she was doing fighting him, he had no idea. Maleficent's next bolt jarred him to the ground again.

Kairi parried Miyu's knife and kicked her shin, accidentally lowering her stance far enough for Miyu to catch her across the cheek on the return swing, sending Kairi backpedalling over a chair. Miyu tripped in her pursuit and sprained the ankle that Kairi had surreptitiously frozen to the ground. "Ice from your heart?" She chided.

Kairi turned and re-shielded Riku without answering. Miyu burned her foot loose with a spell and, ironically, froze. Everyone had. King Mickey had arrived at some point, and he too was standing quite still in the doorway with Donald and Goofy on either side. He looked at Riku, Maleficent, and Selphie. They blinked. He looked at the shadow, which was busy eating. He looked at Kairi and Miyu. They blinked as well. He turned to Maleficent. "This isn't your doing, is it?"

"Why would I arrange such a debacle, you rat?"

He scratched his chin while he eyed Selphie, whose own were backlit by green. "And I don't suppose Xehanort planned this, although I was going to a moment ago."

He nodded in the direction of Sora, who either had a really bloody nose or was chewing on Xehanort's severed heart with his mouth open. For once no one was concerned with his manners.

Maleficent forced Riku across the room with a wind spell and gestured Selphie to her side. Selphie didn't appear to be acting entirely of her own will.

No one really cared. Sora swallowed hard, taking down a piece that wasn't really chewed properly yet, and made a harsh noise that might pass for a cackle in the underworld. He sniffed the air and turned around to face everyone.

"Maleficent?" He cooed. "Is that you?" Sora rose to all fours and settled his gaze on her.

"We have a score to settle, don't we?"

"Sora!"

He ignored Kairi and hopped onto a table for higher ground, still stalking Maleficent. She summoned the staff to her hands.

"Sora, get a hold of yourself!"

Riku was a distant buzz in his mind. He hopped to a closer table and started shifting his balance faster. Goofy and Donald called to him, "What are you doing?" But he couldn't hear anything of the sort. Blood rushed past his ears to a rising thump, thump, thump, blocking out everything but the annihilation of every enemy he had. He hopped to another table and lunged for the witch, and It was Xehanort's voice that finally broke his trance. He bounced off of an unseen wall and reversed his direction to land over the corpse he had just finished off.

"WHAT?!"

"Of course I have a heart. I just never used it."

"SHUT UP!"

The corpse didn't respond. It hadn't spoken in the first place. Mickey's eyes betrayed a sense of horror, and Goofy found enough sense to say, "I think he's not fully there in the head anymore, your majesty."

Maleficent chuckled. "And to think, a teenage girl did to him what even the Chernabog couldn't."

With a spiteful glance at Miyu, she hugged Selphie closer and vanished in a rush of green smoke.

Miyu was pinned by stares. She dropped her pocketknife. "She's lying!"

Mickey crossed the room, ignoring her, and set a hand on Sora's shoulder.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! YOU'RE DEAD!"

"Sora?"

He sobbed, and tears of darkness started to peel away from his face.

"YOU CAN'T HURT HER ANYMORE! YOU'RE DEAD! NO!"

Mickey patted his back lightly. "Sora, it's alright."

"No! No."

He dropped to his hands and knees, and sobbed the darkness away until a broken, sandy haired teen was left crying over a corpse. Miyu shrieked as she bumped into Donald and Goofy at the door. She had tried to back her way out while everyone was distracted. The duck scowled at her.

"What did you do to my friend, little girl?"


	13. Chapter 13

**"there's nothing quite like a long, relaxing vacation and the sudden realization that you're not supposed to take one." -Krivoklatsko, as transcribed by Jiminy Cricket**

**Recap of last chapter: Miyu, Young Xehanort, Sora, Kair, Riku, Maleficent, and Selhpie had a battle at the restaurant. Sora turned into a heartless and ate Xehanort's heart out of his chest. Maleficent escaped with Selphie when Mickey, Donald, and Goofy arrived. Miyu surrendered to Sora, Kairi, Riku, mickey, donald, and Goofy.**

**

* * *

**

Yen Sid, whose eyes have seen what is reserved for the immortals, whose voice has commanded the stars, and whose desk has taken the spills of elixirs that dethrone gods, was currently looking at a large rat and explaining some mid-level arcane arts in a deep monotone. King Mickey set his drink on the epic table and flattened out an average piece of paper. He drew an oval on it and added some petal-like decorations to it.

"Is this the pod we're talking about, Master Sid?"

Yen Sid eyed the crude scrawling somewhat favorably. "Ansem used a similar device to restore Sora's memories. Yes, I suppose that the pods of which I speak may have the same appearance."

Mickey drew an X on one side of the pod and continued his questioning. "So… before we defeated Master Xehanort, he constructed one of these pods."

Yen Sid, who had once raised a mountain from the ground by nodding his head, nodded confirmation instead. He had already explained this to the king, and was easily bored when repeating himself.

Mickey continued by drawing an arrow from the X to the pod and then another arrow from the pod to a blank piece of the paper. He scribbled another X at the end of the arrow. "And whenever he dies, this pod recreates him?"

Yen Sid nodded. No mountains were created in the process, but it seemed that Mickey was catching on.

Yen Sid explained it further. "When Xehanort dies, he does not actually die. He returns to this device, which reconstructs him as he was when he created it."

The mouse-king frowned unhappily, or perhaps in thought judging by the way he rubbed his chin.

"Why didn't we learn about this sooner?" He asked.

Yen Sid never shrugged (and didn't now), presumably saving the effort for one of his constant arcane tasks. "He had never used it before," he answered.

The king's ears popped up at that, alarmed. "Used it?"

Ansem nodded. "He is alive again, as is someone else."

Mickey was so incredulous as to be indignant. His arms swung wide and he cried, almost yelled, "How can you know that?"

Yen Sid did not nod this time. He only said, in a low, monotone assertion, "I know. I could feel when the process began. I could see as the magic was taken from our world into the next. Two resurrections took place, and a mysterious figure was seen at the castle in Radiant Gardens only moments later."

Mickey was annoyed now, mostly with himself at the thought that he had taken so much time responding to Master Sid's summons. He shook his head.

"But we killed Master Xehanort at the Keyblade Graveyard. Why wouldn't he have resurrected then? Why wait until now?"

Yen Sid shook his head in return, remembering a time when the same motion birthed a star. "You did not kill him. His body was destroyed, but he still lived on in Terra."

Mickey thought in silence. "But… when Terra died, when he became a heartless…"

Again, Yen Sid shook his head. He saw a new light appear in the sky, out the window behind Mickey, and smiled to himself before continuing. "Master Xehanort did not truly die until his Heartless, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and his Nobody, Xemnas, were both destroyed. That is when both of the resurrections began."

Mickey nodded, finally able to accept it. "He's back then."

Yen Sid nodded, and found himself immensely satisfied at the resulting supernova in the distance. "Master Xehanort has returned," he intoned.

King Mickey nodded again, and again he shook his head. "But… No. Who's the other person that was ressurected?"

* * *

**A Day of Travel-By-Gummi-Ship Later**

**

* * *

**

Donald tapped his foot impatiently, awaiting Miyu's response. Goofy was at his side, blocking the restaurant door with his shield. Miyu wouldn't be getting anywhere on their watch. Meanwhile, Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey had all gathered around a broken, weeping Sora. Their huddled forms were hidden from the outside world by the overturned chairs and tables around them, evidence of the battle they'd had with Xehanort and Maleficent. Anyone investigating the scene would probably be more interested in the mauled carcass next to them.

Sora gagged on some blood and spit out a chunk of things he didn't want to think about, still sobbing through tears and trying to catch his breath. Yes, he had eaten Xehanort's heart. He would come to terms with that later, after many years of counseling. At the moment, Sora was busier worrying about self control: Controlling his lungs, learning to breathe in first and then out second; controlling his panic, stopping the shaking throughout his body; and hopefully, once he got his motor functions back, controlling his own soul. Every reflection of himself was an abyss he could not look into. Not alone.

Fortunately, Sora was surrounded by his closest friends at that exact moment. And Kairi. Kairi was there, kneeling in front of him, trying to get his chin up so she could smile and tell him everything would be okay. The chin was coming up slowly, so Riku set a hand on his shoulder- tentatively, of course. "You okay, buddy?" he said with an attempt at lightheartedness.

Sora sobbed his throat clear and lied miserably. No one could respond for a long while, making enough time for Sora to finally wipe his eyes clear and rock back onto his heels so he could stand. From up on his feet, he finally nodded to his friends and turned to King Mickey. Mickey turned to Miyu.

"I didn't do anything!" She shrieked.

Mickey didn't dignify her with a response.

"Maleficent was lying! She always lies! She's the bad guy, not me!"

Mickey didn't respond, leaving Miyu scrambling for words. "She set me up for this! I just wanted to be strong, and she used me! I didn't do anything! I'm innocent! Riku, tell them!"

She gestured to him for help. Riku stuffed his pockets and pressed his lips tight. She turned her eyes to Sora. He spit out some blood disinterestedly. Kairi wouldn't even make eye contact. Finally, in desperation, Miyu turned to Mickey for support.

"Well?" he asked.

"Well what? I'm innocent!"

Mickey drew a pocket knife from his pocket and threw it into the floor at her feet. Her initials were carved into its handle. As she reached to retrieve it, he drew and threw another. Again, her initials were in the handle. She waited to see if there was a third before retrieving them both. Mickey explained.

"The first knife came from the corpse of a young man who met his end in the restroom behind us," he squeaked. "The second came out of Selphie Timlett, and was left in a pool of her blood on a sidewalk this morning."

Miyu's eyes betrayed her before she finished lying, "I don't know anything about that!"

Mickey pivoted on his heel and walked past Sora, Riku, and Kairi on his way to the restrooms. The implication that everyone should follow him was self-evident, so they followed him into the women's restroom. Once they had all crowded around inside the small space, with Donald and goofy blocking the door and Miyu up front with Mickey, the King produced a handwritten note from his pocket. He read aloud,

"The writer of the note left on the victim was undoubtably female. The wielder of the weapon was passionately motivated to harm the victim. The men's room was empty with the exception of the victim. The women's restroom, however, was occupied by the owner of the murder weapon. The restrooms are adjacent, and travel between them is fully possible for any one determined to do so."

Mickey pushed a stall door open, and the party leaned in to stare at toilet supported by a very solid wall.

"Mr. Sherlock Holmes wrote me this note," the king added. He glanced in Riku's direction and ordered, "Climb onto the toilet."

Riku wasn't very quick to comply, instead opting to shift his weight uncertainly. Mickey glared at him and nodded at the toilet. "Get up there." Riku pushed to the front of the group and stepped up onto the pot. He looked to the king expectantly. Mickey pointed at the roof and stated, "The ceiling is made of segmented cardboard tiles, similar to what you'd see in a school."

Riku caught on suddenly. He was the tallest person in the group; hence, he was the one standing on the toilet. He reached up and pushed the ceiling tile above him out of the way, and then lifted himself into the space above. After rummaging around for a moment he called down, "it goes all the way across to the guys' room."

Mickey turned to Miyu. "Well?"

She didn't answer, so Mickey spoke for her.

"You let your fears get the best of you. Maleficent used that against you to start turning you into someone you're not." _A killer_, he seemed to add.

As his gaze turned to Sora, the group began to understand that his scolding was for them all.

"Even you weren't entirely safe, Sora." His gaze fell to Kairi. He didn't know her sins, but he knew they were there. She diverted her gaze to the ground, thinking of all the girls like Lulu she'd made enemies of. When Riku looked down from the roof and into Mickey's eyes, it was only briefly. Mickey was not fond of anything that made him remember Terra.

"You all need to consider the result of your actions," Mickey continued. "Your friend Selphie is being made into a mindless drone as we speak because of the ways you have all behaved. A teenage boy is dead because he couldn't control his temper, and because you" he gestured at Miyu "couldn't control your fears."

The king stopped himself there and fumbled with his fingers idly before finally admitting, "I'm partly to blame as well." Everyone's heads rose at that. They realized that the weight of consideration had brought most of their gazes to the ground until then. King Mickey was trying to stop himself from going on, or trying to stop himself from trying to stop himself. It was a visible struggle, either way. Eventually the talking side won.

"I know it means less every time I say it." His words dug into the walls around them, making the party's confines feel all the more personal. "But… It's time I told you everything."

And he did. It took surprisingly little time, but the king told them everything he remembered about their predecessors, about Ansem the Wise, about Master Xehanort, about their resurrection via unknown means, and most importantly, about the keyblade. He told them everything he knew about the ultimate weapon in one sentence: "I don't know. I wish I could tell you, but there are things I don't know."

Riku had hopped down from the ceiling and was leaning against the wall. Sora had taken a seat on the ground with Kairi leaning against him. Donald and goofy were still guarding the door. Miyu was silently slumped in a corner.

"So…" Riku gazed through his fingers as if they extended into time. His face had sunk into the spell of the confused, like a drunkard vexed by something he ought to understand. "I was destined to fall into darkness."

Sora nodded. "And Roxas isn't my Nobody. He's… I'm the one who's an extra person."

"We're just mirrors for people who came before us," Kairi finished.

Their thoughts delved into philosophy and free will, swarming them with doubt for an insufferable time. The uncertainty of his identity was heavier on Sora than the uncertainty of his control. The turmoil in Kairi of not knowing who she was reminded her even more of the uncertainty about her origin. Again, she was the confused girl who had washed up on a foreign shore without any parents. Riku was the possessed, overly cavalier fumbler who could have- should have been Sora.

Miyu sobbed, breaking the trance. Jerky tears followed soon, without much sympathy from anyone else. Mickey finally decided to do the right thing, and walked to her side. He only stood there though, and waited for her to speak.

"I'm the only one without an excuse," she finally said. "And I didn't even know I'd done anything."

Kairi's head tilted oddly. Sora noticed. "What is it?"

"She _didn't_ do it," Kairi said. Everyone turned to her then, incredulous. Kairi pointed at the stall. "Selphie and I were standing right outside of her stall talking to her. She never left. We heard her crying the whole time. So if she never left the stall, it can't be her. someone else could have been hiding in the roof, or in another stall."

Everyone turned to look back at the stall. Mickey retrieved Mr. Holmes' note from his pocket and read it to himself again before mouthing, "Oh."

Miyu wiped her eyes clear and sniffled, "you mean I'm innocent?"

Kairi nodded. "Yeah."

Miyu chanced a smile. "Can we still be friends then?"

Kairi nodded. "Of course!"

"Wait, wait, wait." Riku stood off of his wall and addressed Kairi while tossign his thumb at Miyu. "Didn't she just try to stab you, like, ten minutes ago?"

Kairi fumbled for an answer before gesturing at the gashes in Miyu's side. "Sora nearly killed her only a few minutes ago. If she's willing to forgive, we should be too."

Sora picked a sliver of something out from under his fingernails and dropped it into a sink.

Riku didn't have an answer, and was left trying to ignore Miyu's pleading eyes.

"Alright," he finally mumbled.

"Good," Mickey said. "Well I'm glad we have that sorted out. But now we need to get to work. Maleficent has kidnapped Selphie, and there's still a killer on the loose." He pointed at Sora. "You three should go after Maleficent. I'll track down the killer." He turned to leave, but was stopped when Miyu called, "wait!"

Mickey turned back to her.

"I want to help!"

"It only takes one person to deliver a message." He waived the note in the air and turned away again. Donald and Goofy followed him out the door with a wave to Sora. Miyu ran to Sora desperately, and tried for Riku and Kairi's attention when he proved too buy picking at his teeth.

"Please," she cried. "Let me do something. I want to make this right!"

Riku shrugged and answered, "you can come along." _But we're not together _was implicit in the statement.

Kairi nodded. "Friends forever."

Sora shrugged and smiled. "Okay. Promise not to kill us?"

"Promise not to kill anyone," Riku corrected.

Sora glared at him. "What do you think we're going to do with Maleficent and Xehanort?"

Riku shifted his feet, unable to answer. Kairi tried for him. "We don't have to kill them, Sora. Killing is... you know. It's wrong."

Sora picked another piece of Xehanort's heart out of his teeth. "You heard the king. We let the darkness get the best of us."

Everyone's eyebrows joined into a confusion dance.

"So the way I see it," he finished, "If you're going to Hell, you might as well grease the slide."

He looked to Miyu, who was watching him with worried uncertainty.

"How about it?" Sora asked. "Promise not to kill us?"

Miyu weighed the thought of being left behind. She wanted to be a hero like them more than anything. She wanted to help. She wanted to make things right.

She nodded. "I promise."

**

* * *

**

Master Yen Sid, who once concerned himself with the saving of a galactic cluster from certain destruction, was now concerned about a single resurrection. To be more accurate, he was concerned about its absence. The crystal ball he had been using to observe the Rowdy Rumble in the café was now laying on a silk pillow on a shelf. Master Yen Sid was at his window, waiting for something he increasingly believed would not come. The young man Sora had killed had most definitely been Xehanort, just as he was when Terra was his vessel. But no machine was functioning. No new life was being created. No resurrection was occurring.

When he finally admitted the logical conclusion, he summoned an owl into existence and retrieved a pen and parchment along with it. He scribbled a quick note on it in handwriting that had determined new axioms of artificial universes and then handed the parchment to the owl.

"To the King of Disney Castle," he instructed it.

**

* * *

**

King Mickey stepped out of the restaurant with Donald and Goofy in tow. The sun was fully up now, and several people were roaming the streets. Two children were peering into the glass front of the restaurant, discussing their theories on what had destroyed the tables inside.

"Donald." The duck snapped to attention at the king's voice. "I need you to find Mr. Holmes for me. I think he said he was visiting the local school."

Donald nodded. "I'm on it, your majesty!" And with that, he power-waddled away, much to the amusement of several shoppers.

"Goofy." The same result.

"I heard the local hospital was destroyed. Go see if you can't help them rebuild. If there's no one there yet, find some volunteers and make it happen."

Goofy nodded loyally and set off in the other direction. Mickey, suddenly alone, frowned and pulled the note from his cloak again. He was sure Sherlock was right. But if Miyu didn't do it, who did? The atrocity of the killing could only be the product of a hateful heart or a despicable mind. No Heartless or Nobody would take such pains to cause such pains. A person murdered a person. Neither could be identified. Mickey stuffed the note back into his pocket unhappily, only to have another delivered into his hand almost immediately after.

An owl landed on his shoulder and handed it to him. When he took it, the owl vanished. He was beginning to expect such feats from Yen Sid. The letters, however, he could never predict. This one included. It was only two words, and he wished for the entire world that he had seen them a moment sooner. King Mickey dropped the note into his cloak and ran around the building to the side entrance that he knew Sora and company would use, just in time to see their heels disappeared around another corner.

The one nagging thought of the letter drove him to chase them as fast as his size could carry. He dreaded the thought of being too slow, of thinking as slowly as he had before, of looking into their eyes and saying it again "I'm partly to blame," of looking into their eyes and not being able to say it to them.

The note had only two words: _Xehanort lives._


End file.
